Coalition Government Likely in Jammu and Kashmir
Vote in Indian Region Yields No Clear Winner
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 29, 2008; Page A11
NEW DELHI, Dec. 28 -- No clear winner emerged in elections in India's troubled Jammu and Kashmir region, according to results released Sunday, but a new coalition led by the regional National Conference party was likely to assume power in the assembly.
The election was held in the shadow of a tense standoff between India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed countries that have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.
No single party gained enough seats to form a government on its own, but the National Conference is expected to ally with the Congress party. The former, which was in the opposition for the past six years, won in 28 out of 87 constituencies. The Congress party won in 17.
The leader of the National Conference, Omar Abdullah, told reporters his party was ready to form a government with the "like-minded Congress party." The two parties have traditionally been allies.
"People have voted for a coalition government. We are the only two in a position to provide a stable government," Abdullah told television reporters in Srinagar, the region's summer capital. The two parties were engaged in back-channel talks late Sunday.
The staggered, seven-phased polls, held amid heavy security, witnessed an unexpectedly high voter turnout of 61.5 percent despite a boycott call by separatists who oppose Indian rule in Kashmir. In the last election, in 2002, voter turnout was about 43 percent.
[Separatism]
No Time to Wait for Chinese Recovery
The Chinese government announced that 7,148 companies closed down in Guangdong Province, which normally accounts for 33.7 percent of China’s total exports, during the first nine months of this year. But some media reported that 67,000 businesses closed after October.
In the case of Dongguan city, which houses the largest number of foreign companies in Guangdong Province, 27 percent of rented factories are said to be empty. The population of Dongguan, which surpassed 10 million at one time, has fallen to 8 million as laid-off workers leave. The situation is similar in Shangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces along China’s eastern coastline. There are accounts that 600,000 companies in those regions have closed so far this year, costing 6.7 million jobs. Last month, the World Bank forecast China’s economy would grow 8.5 percent next year, but it has recently cut that projection to 7.5 percent. Goldman Sachs forecasts 6 percent growth, while Hong Kong’s CLSA Securities predicts 5.5 percent expansion. China’s exports in November totaled US$114.99 billion, down 2 percent from a year ago. Since 2002, China’s exports have grown more than 20 percent each year. And it is the first time that China’s monthly exports have declined since the bursting of the American IT bubble in 2001.
China’s domestic consumption has also slowed drastically.
The Chinese market offers a last chance for Korean exports at a time when the U.S. and European economies are slowing in earnest. Korea’s exports to China in October declined 2.6 percent compared to last year and dropped 32.9 percent in November. Korea’s exports to China, which have grown an average 30 percent or more each month during the first half of this year, have virtually come to a screeching halt.
Chinese Warships Sail, Loaded for Pirates
By MARK McDONALD
Published: December 26, 2008
HONG KONG — In China’s first modern deployment of battle-ready warships beyond the Pacific, a naval task force set out Friday to begin escorts and patrols in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, state news media reported.
A supply ship and two destroyers departed from Sanya, on the island province of Hainan, carrying a total of about 800 crew members, according to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.
“In addition to missiles, artillery and satellite communications, special troops who are trained for the tasks will also be on board the warships,” said Xiao Xinnian, deputy chief of China’s naval forces, in a news broadcast on CCTV, the state network.
The task force commander, Rear Adm. Du Jingcheng, said the primary mission of the destroyers, which carry helicopters, would be to protect Chinese merchant ships, especially tankers with crude oil, that traverse the gulf, which separates the coasts of Somalia and Yemen.
About 60 percent of China’s imported oil is from the Middle East. Most of that passes through the gulf, along with huge shipments of raw materials from Africa.
Stratfor, a private intelligence agency based in the United States, said in a report that a Chinese antipiracy patrol would afford its navy “some very real opportunities for on-the-job training, covering everything from logistics far from home and combat against seaborne opponents to communications and joint operations with other, more experienced navies.”
The analysis also said the Chinese would probably monitor the way NATO warships, especially those of the United States, “communicate with each other and with their ship-borne helicopters.” The navy will acquire new skills, it said, “under the banner of internationalism.”
[China rising]
China's momentous 2008
Tania Branigan recounts extraordinary events from the last 12 months in China and introduces video highlights of the yearComments (3) The famed Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times" is apocryphal; but perhaps it should have been coined for 2008. Both China's citizens and outside observers thought the year would be dominated by the Olympics. Instead, it began with the heaviest snowstorms for decades and ended with an economic crisis seeing mass layoffs. In between, came the worst ethnic unrest in many years and the terrible earthquake in Sichuan, which claimed as many as 90,000 lives.
Link to this video No one could have predicted the year's biggest news stories, but my prescient colleague Jonathan Watts warned that the country could face a tough 12 months after the record-breaking growth of 2007.
[Media] [Separatism]
Dollar Shift: Chinese Pockets Filled as Americans’ Emptied
By MARK LANDLER
Published: December 25, 2008
“Usually it’s the rich country lending to the poor. This time, it’s the poor country lending to the rich.”
— Niall Ferguson
WASHINGTON — In March 2005, a low-key Princeton economist who had become a Federal Reserve governor coined a novel theory to explain the growing tendency of Americans to borrow from foreigners, particularly the Chinese, to finance their heavy spending.
The problem, he said, was not that Americans spend too much, but that foreigners save too much. The Chinese have piled up so much excess savings that they lend money to the United States at low rates, underwriting American consumption.
This colossal credit cycle could not last forever, he said. But in a global economy, the transfer of Chinese money to America was a market phenomenon that would take years, even a decade, to work itself out. For now, he said, “we probably have little choice except to be patient.”
Today, the dependence of the United States on Chinese money looks less benign. And the economist who proposed the theory, Ben S. Bernanke, is dealing with the consequences, having been promoted to chairman of the Fed in 2006, as these cross-border money flows were reaching stratospheric levels.
[Inversion] [China rising] [Decline]
China’s Financial Industry Recruits Abroad
By JIMMY WANG
Published: December 25, 2008
NEW YORK — Mary Yu pitches hard to the recruiter sitting in front of her. “I’ve got experience in risk management,” she explains, naming the bank where she works and watching anxiously as the recruiter scribbles on her résumé.
Ms. Yu, 43, breathes a sigh of relief when the recruiter places her résumé in the review pile — she might be called back for another round of interviews.
Ms. Yu was just one of hundreds of jobseekers who attended a recruiting event in the ballroom of the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel in Flushing, Queens, where some of China’s largest financial institutions have traveled to recruit talent from abroad. The recruiters are picking from the ranks of financial sector employees who fear what the future might bring. “I flew all the way from Charlotte, N.C., for this event. I’m trying to create a safety net for myself,” Ms. Yu said.
The New York event was the last of three stops made by the visiting Chinese delegation, which was made up of recruiters and representatives from more than 27 Chinese financial firms. The delegation, which held events in London and Chicago as part of its global recruiting tour, hoped to fill 170 positions by the end of its trip.
With jobs quickly disappearing from Wall Street and the boom in global finance over for the foreseeable future, China still offers opportunity, even as its own economy slows. Worldwide, thousands of financial service jobs have been erased because of the credit crisis, with London and New York suffering large losses.
Now, in a reverse miniature brain drain, Chinese financial institutions are taking advantage of the downturn and focusing on the newly unemployed to diversify and upgrade their own staffs.
[Services] [China rising] [Decline]
Mumbai Terror Attacks: Revisiting the U.S.-Pakistan-India Triangle
by Sourabh Gupta
Sourabh Gupta (sgupta@samuelsinternational.com) is a senior research associate at Samuels International Associates, Inc.
As Islamabad’s shadowy linkages to the gruesome terror attacks in Mumbai come under the scanner and as calls for reprisals range the spectrum from covert operations to an internationally supervised disbanding of the Pakistan-based jihadi infrastructure, the history of previous episodes of Indo-Pakistani tension – and ensuing U.S.-engineered, stopgap palliatives – bears revisiting. Looming steadily behind all remains the unresolved final status of the decades-old Kashmir dispute.
Yet, at bottom, Kashmir and its unresolved status is the underlying problem. With almost mathematical certainty, each successive phase of indigenous Kashmiri rebellion against Indian authority has had its origin, among other causes, in New Delhi’s misrule - in turn, inviting thereafter a predictably armed and roguish pattern of Pakistani interference in the affairs of Kashmir. From the local agrarian uprising against provincial and central authority (in the late-1940s) to the unilateral extension of New Delhi’s constitutional prerogatives over-and-above Kashmir’s autonomy provisions (1964) to the widespread electoral rigging and arbitrary dissolution of the state’s elected assembly (in the late-1980s), each Indian spark and subsequent Kashmiri revolt has been the prelude to Indo-Pakistani tensions. Each standoff thereafter has spilled over into open (1947-48, 1965) or limited war (1999).
[Separatism]
Convenient untruths
Thursday, December 25, 2008
By Asif Ezdi
Having decided to “help India become a major world power in the 21st century,” the Bush administration agreed in March 2005 to grant India its longstanding wish for exemption from US domestic law and from the international regime barring India and other countries that do not accept full-scope safeguards from access to nuclear plants and technology. This entailed the abandonment of a longstanding US policy and of guidelines on nuclear trade adopted by the Nuclear Suppliers Group at American behest following India’s nuclear tests in 1974.
In an op-ed in The Washington Post on March 13, 2006, Condoleezza Rice wrote: “Our agreement will not enhance [India’s] capacity to make more [nuclear weapons].” This is not simply a convenient untruth. It is just plain false. Several experts and commentators have said that the agreement will aid India’s bomb effort by enabling it to dedicate more of its scarce uranium resources to producing material for weapons rather than fuel for power reactors. It has been said that every pound of uranium that India is allowed to import for its power reactors frees up a pound of uranium for its bomb programme. According to former President Carter, the agreement would allow India to produce enough fissile material for as many as 50 weapons a year, far exceeding what is believed to be its current capacity.
[Nuclear deal] [Nuclear weapons]
South Asia descends into terror's vortex
By M K Bhadrakumar
South Asians will watch the year end in a pall of gloom. The region is fast getting sucked into the vortex of terrorism. The Afghan war has crossed the Khyber and is stealthily advancing towards the fertile Indo-Gangetic plains.
Whatever hopes might have lingered that Barack Obama would be a harbinger of "change", have also been dashed by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The Financial Times of London reported on Monday that in an exclusive interview Rice prophesied that the incoming Obama administration might have little option but to follow the current US approach on a range of foreign policy issues. Significantly, her prognosis figured in the course of a foreign policy review that primarily focused on Russia, Iran and Afghanistan.
South Asian security is at a crossroads. On the one hand, the United States made great strides in getting embedded in the region on a long-term footing. South Asia must figure as a rare exception in the George W Bush era's dismal foreign policy legacy. On other hand, the big pawn on the South Asian chessboard, India, is heading for parliamentary elections. Almost certainly, a new government with new thinking will assume office in Delhi by May. US-India ties will also come under scrutiny.
The past four-week period has also shaken up Indian illusions regarding Washington's regional policies. It is plain to see that the US never really abandoned its "hyphenated" policy towards India and Pakistan as South Asia's two important rival powers, both of which are useful in their own ways for the pursuit of the US's geostrategies.
Actually, by gently holding out the threat to the US that the Afghan operations would grievously suffer unless Washington restrained Delhi from precipitating any tensions on the India-Pakistan border, Islamabad seems to have neatly pole-vaulted over Rice to appeal straight to the Pentagon, where there is abiding camaraderie towards the Pakistani generals.
One possible explanation is that the US is attempting pressure tactics by appointing a special envoy to discuss Kashmir. Washington has been strongly pitching for a fair share of the multi-billion dollar arms deals that are in the Indian pipeline. A single deal for the procurement of 126 aircraft and related supplies including co-production alone can be worth anywhere up to US$16 billion. The Bush administration hoped to clinch the deal before year-end.
Gates visited Delhi in February with the arms merchants and unabashedly canvassed for awarding the contracts through direct negotiations rather than international tender. But the Indians are sticking to their cumbersome tender procedures which require the US companies to compete with Russia and France and other arms manufacturers.
At the same time, India is heading for a crucial, tightly fought parliamentary election within a few months and the government cannot afford to appear to be weak and rudderless. The majority opinion in the country somehow has convinced itself that the Pakistani security establishment perpetrated the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The government faces potentially damaging criticism in the competitive domestic politics that its US-centric foreign policy has run into a cul-de-sac. The powerful pro-US lobby in Delhi's strategic community and the corporate media already looks confused. The fizz in the US-India strategic partnership is fast vanishing. The much-touted US-India nuclear deal, hailed as a historic achievement of the government, already looks jaded and something of an embarrassment.
Indeed, against the backdrop of the Afghan war, there has been a creeping takeover of the US foreign and security policy in South Asia by the generals in the Pentagon who are probably today quite in a position to devour Obama's call for change.
As Delhi and Islamabad dig in, Obama will have a hard time balancing the US's regional policy. However, one positive outcome will be that the US-India relationship will emerge out of this phase as a more mature process, having shed the false expectations and the rhetorical hype of recent years. A new government will also be assuming office in Delhi by next May and it is bound to take a fresh look at the "strategic partnership" with the US.
It is highly unlikely that any new leadership in Delhi will emulate current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ardor for India's strategic partnership with the US. India will also have drawn its lessons from the current crisis. The return to an independent foreign policy may become necessary - almost unavoidable. The year 2009 may well prove to be a formative year of readjustment in India's post-Cold War foreign policy.
[Quadrille] [China confrontation] [Nuclear deal] [Pentagon]
Exiled Muslim tycoon pays price for criticizing China
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Some of China's favorite adjectives for Rebiya Kadeer, an exiled leader of China's ethnic Uighur minority, are "terrorist" and "separatist monster."
The name-calling only seems to fire up Kadeer, who sometimes works these days from a small office about a block from the White House. She sees her job as being a thorn in China's side on behalf of her ethnic Muslim brethren in China's resource-rich far west.
[Separatism]
Three Events Tell a Tale of Two Indias
by David J. Karl
David J. Karl (dkarl@pacificcouncil.org) is director of studies at the Pacific Council on International Policy and project director of the Bi-national Task Force on Enhancing India-U.S. Cooperation in the Global Innovation Economy.
The new Global Trends 2025 report by the U.S. National Intelligence Council highlighted the ascent of China and India as part of a fundamental global power shift that will play out in the coming decades. A series of events occurring within a week of one another in October sharply illustrated India’s potential for great-power status as well as the distance the country still has to travel to fulfill its global ambitions. The events also threw light on the U.S. strategy, so evident during the Bush administration, of building up New Delhi’s capabilities to serve as a geopolitical hedge against Beijing.
[China confrontation] [China India comparison]
World Bank imposes sanctions on Satyam
By Joe Leahy in Mumbai
Published: December 23 2008 20:18 | Last updated: December 23 2008 20:18
The World Bank has barred India’s Satyam Computer Services from doing business with it for eight years, in one of the most severe penalties by a client against a large Indian outsourcing company.
On Tuesday, the aid institution confirmed a report that said it had barred Satyam, India’s fourth-largest outsourcer by revenue, for providing “improper benefits to bank staff” in exchange for contracts and providing a “lack of documentation” on invoices.
[Offshoring]
Greetings to Indian FM
Pyongyang, December 23 (KCNA) -- DPRK Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun on Dec. 10 sent a message of greetings to Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the DPRK and India.
Noting that the bilateral friendly and cooperative relations have steadily developed in various fields for the past 35 years, the message sincerely wished the Indian government and people bigger successes in their efforts for the stability and development of the country and the welfare of the people.
Chinese Tainted Milk Scandal Company Bankrupt
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 24, 2008
Filed at 2:53 a.m. ET
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A Chinese court has declared bankrupt the company at the center of a scandal over tainted milk -- blamed for killing six children and sickening almost 300,000 more, one of the company's owners said Wednesday.
New Zealand's Fonterra Group said that a court in Shijiazhuang, in China's Hebei province, issued a bankruptcy order against Sanlu Group Co. in response to a petition from a creditor.
''Sanlu will now be managed by a court-appointed receiver who will assume responsibility for an orderly sale of the company's assets and payment of creditors,'' Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier said in a statement.
[Quality]
'Nobody Wants War,' Indian Prime Minister Says
Singh Plays Down That Possibility as Domestic Pressure Mounts and Pakistan Scrambles Jets
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, December 24, 2008; Page A07
NEW DELHI, Dec. 23 -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tried to allay fears Tuesday about the possibility of war with neighboring Pakistan, saying that "nobody wants war." Singh's comments came amid rising calls in India for military action and a day after Pakistan's air force conducted war-training exercises with fighter jets above that country's major cities.
"The issue is not war. The issue is terror and territory in Pakistan being used to provoke, to aid and abet terrorism. Nobody wants war," Singh told reporters outside Parliament.
He said India wanted Pakistan to "dismantle the terror machine" and added that Islamabad "knows what that implies."
India Gives Pakistan Letter Said to Be Gunman’s
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
December 23, 2008
NEW DELHI — India on Monday gave Pakistan what it called proof of Pakistani involvement in last month’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The move built public pressure on India’s neighbor, where the senior-ranking member of the American military arrived for talks for the second time since the attacks.
The Indian Foreign Ministry announced late Monday that it had given Pakistani officials here what it described as a letter from the lone surviving attacker. In the letter, the Indian ministry said, the gunman, Muhammad Ajmal Kasab, said he and his nine accomplices were “from Pakistan.” India did not make the specific contents of the letter public.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged receipt of the letter, saying only that “the contents of the letter are being examined.” The government in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, has denied any links to the terrorist attacks and pressed India to offer proof. American officials have in turn pressed Pakistan to do more to crack down on terrorist groups operating within its territory.
Tata leaps in to rescue Jaguar Land Rover
Indian owner said to be ready to inject millions
UK reluctantly prepares to copy Canadian bail-outDan Milmo and Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk, Sunday 21 December 2008 20.33 GMT Article history
Jaguar has suffered from a massive drop in showroom sales. Photograph: David Sillitoe
A major government rescue package for Jaguar Land Rover is expected to be placed on hold amid signs that the company's Indian owners are prepared to make an emergency cash injection.
China's First Plug-In Hybrid Car Rolls Out
The infrastructure for running electric cars is not quite in place in China, but BYD Auto's plug-in has a lot to offer
By Frederik Balfour
While U.S. automakers struggle to survive after the Senate rejected a bailout for Detroit, one company from China may be showing a way forward for the industry. On Dec. 15, BYD Auto got a jump on General Motors (GM), Toyota (TM), and Nissan (NSANY) by introducing in its home town of Shenzhen the first mass-produced plug-in hybrid, the F3 DM. BYD's new car, with a $22,000 price tag, can run for up to 60 miles on a battery charged from an ordinary electricity outlet.
Early this year there was plenty of skepticism in auto circles about BYD's ability to put together a car that would ever become truly roadworthy. The company unveiled its plug-in hybrid at the Detroit Auto Show in January, and few outsiders figured the Chinese upstart, which had only been in the auto business since 2003, had the know-how to produce a commercially viable plug-in.
[China rising]
Website: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
Netaji Bhawan, Calcutta, where the museum, archives and library of Netaji Research Bureau are located, is the ancestral house of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose owned and managed by the Bureau. Netaji is regarded as a national hero in India and widely respected in the whole of Asia for his struggle and sacrifice for the liberation of India and all Asian peoples and the establishment of an international order based on justice, friendship and cooperation. The house is a national shrine and visited by thousands of Indians, many Asians and people from across the world all the year round. The Netaji Research Bureau, founded by Dr Sisir Kumar Bose in 1957, is an internationally renowned institute of history, politics and international relations. Its Netaji Museum is the finest museum on the Indian independence movement.
Jameel is innocent: Police
19 Dec 2008, 0129 hrs IST, TNN
BANGALORE: Jameel Ahmed is innocent and free, but after an ordeal no one would want to go through. The Bosch staffer who was picked up for
questioning by the police on `baseless' allegations hurled at him by what Bosch described as an "anonymous caller" was on Wednesday night cleared of all of those by the police, who confirm they received a call from the office.
Senior police official Gopal Hosur told TOI: "We have found absolutely no evidence connecting Jameel to `terrorism' and we have found no evidence that he is a terrorist. We have investigated the charges throughly and we find no truth in any of them. Jameel is a free man and we requested him to go back to his house."
[Human rights] [Islam] [Communalism]
Man applauds `shoe-ing' of Bush, held
17 Dec 2008, 0555 hrs IST, TNN
BANGALORE: The `booting' of George W Bush in Baghdad might have thrown up an entirely new terror angle in Bangalore.
A MICO employee, Jameel, who was discussing the incident at his office - and supporting the Iraqi journalist who hurled two shoes at the US President - has landed in custody. The police are questioning Jameel about his suspected terror links.
Jameel's strong support of the hurling of shoes by Muntadar al-Zeid made his colleagues smell a rat. They informed the Adugodi police, who promptly took the 40-year-old into custody for questioning.
The police found paper cuttings of various terror attacks and a letter Jameel had written to the President requesting clemency for Afzal Guru, who has been awarded the death penalty in the Parliament attack case.
When TOI contacted police commissioner Shankar Bidari, he confirmed Jameel is being questioned for his alleged terror links.
[Human rights] [Islam] [Communalism]
Private ownership: The real source of China's economic miracle
Even many Western economists think China has discovered its own road to prosperity, dependent largely on state financing and control. They are quite wrong.
DECEMBER 2008 • Yasheng Huang
In This Article
Exhibit: Entrepreneurial capitalism may be found in urban centers such as Beijing or Shanghai but also in more rural areas such as Wenzhou or Shenzhen.
About the authors
Letters to the editor
The credibility of American-style capitalism was among the earliest victims of the global financial crisis. With Lehman Brothers barely in its grave, pundits the world over rushed to perform the last rites for US economic ideals, including limited government, minimal regulation, and the free-market allocation of credit. In contemplating alternatives to the fallen American model, some looked to China, where markets are tightly regulated and financial institutions controlled by the state. In the aftermath of Wall Street’s meltdown, fretted Francis Fukuyama in Newsweek, China’s brand of state-led capitalism is “looking more and more attractive.” Washington Post columnist David Ignatius hailed the global advent of a Confucian-inspired “new interventionism”; invoking Richard Nixon’s backhanded tribute to John Maynard Keynes, Ignatius
Direct links get underway
The first direct cargo charter ship to depart for mainland China from Taiwan since 1949 sets sail Dec. 15 from Keelung Harbor in the north of the island. (CNA)
Publication Date:12/19/2008 Section:Front Page
By Eric Chao
A new era of cross-strait relations began Dec. 15 with the commencement of direct air, shipping and postal services between Taiwan and mainland China. The historic development ends a nearly six-decade ban on regular links between the two sides since 1949.
During a trip to the southern port city of Kaohsiung to preside over the sending off of the first vessel to mainland China from Taiwan under the new services, President Ma Ying-jeou stated he was pleased that direct air and shipping transport links across the Taiwan Strait had been launched so quickly, and put this down to the combined efforts of Taipei and Beijing.
[Straits]
India's options after Mumbai
Bibhu Prasad Routray, 18 - 12 - 2008
| | | | | | | |
Despite saber-rattling rhetoric in some quarters of public opinion, New Delhi can ill afford military confrontation with Pakistan.
Despite all the evidence that investigators claim links the Mumbai attacks to groups and individuals in Pakistan, India's options vis-à-vis its hostile neighbour are severely limited.
Analysts have also noted that the Indian military is simply not prepared for a military campaign. Saikat Datta observed in Outlook India that while hawks call for the bombing of Islamabad, "our air force, sanctioned 39.5 combat squadrons, is down to 30 off-combat squadrons, our armoured corps doesn't have the tanks to roll in, our infantry is horribly tied up in counter-insurgency operations."
[Separatism]
The Collapse of India’s Growth Rate
Authors: Rajiv Kumar, Mathew Joseph, Karan Singh (ICRIER)
India had a dream run of five years during 2003-08 as the GDP growth averaged nearly 9 per cent annually, the best run over five years ever! The economy began to slow from the middle of 2007-08. A 9 per cent growth apparently could not be sustained: India’s potential rate of growth has been estimated by more than one agency to be around 8.5 per cent. As the economy overheated, the central bank tightened credit gently initially but more sharply since 2006-07. The economy began to slow down. Some of us had argued that the tightening was going too far and was an over-reaction to global inflationary pressures. No one foresaw the external shock arising from the global crisis which began with the financial meltdown in the US.
Now the interesting question is what would India’s growth rate have been in response to the policy measures without the global crisis as compared to what it is likely to be in the context of the on-going global crisis.
Our analysis suggests a sharp collapse in Indian growth this year. India would have grown 7.5 per cent (a slowdown from 9 per cent in 2007-08), had the global crisis not occurred. The global crisis is likely to bring India’s growth rate to below 6 per cent in 2008-09.
Uneasy peace prevails for India's Muslims
From the Los Angeles Times
Many of India's 150 million Muslims feared a violent backlash after the Mumbai attacks, blamed on Islamic extremists, and have gone the extra mile to prove themselves loyal.
By Henry Chu and Mark Magnier
December 14, 2008
Reporting from Mumbai, India, and New Delhi — The Muslims of terror-plagued Mumbai know the drill.
First there is bloodshed. Then come the whispers, the accusing stares, the scarcely veiled hostility.
"They are going to say that all Muslims do this," restaurateur Naved Akhtar Mirza said, after gunmen, apparently Islamic extremists, stormed India's financial capital last month, shooting up a train station and killing hostages at two hotels and a Jewish center.
[Islam] [Communalism]
Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India
Rajindar Sachar (Chair) Prime Minister’s High Level Committee, New Delhi: Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, 2006
< br>
Two years ago, a high-level government commission on the status of India’s Muslims reported that members of the community were more likely to be illiterate than the Indian population as a whole. Muslim households tended to live in areas with less access to toilets, electricity and running water.
[Islam] [Communalism]
Big Brother is Watching: China’s Intentions in the DPRK
By Tim Savage
December 16th, 2008
Tim Savage, Deputy Director of the Seoul Office
of the Nautilus Institute, writes, “China and
South Korea cannot meet in a smoke-filled room
and decide the fate of North Korea. But the more
they can overcome their own mutual distrust, the
less likely it becomes that whatever does happen
in North Korea will lead to a broader regional crisis
Economic Woes? Look to Kerala
Shirin Shirin | December 10, 2008
In his 2005 book The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman joined a chorus of economists who touted India as the latest development success story, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. While India has developed a middle class with disposable income for the first time in recent history, such growth has not been accompanied by meaningful poverty reduction.
According to the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index, which measures human development through a variety of indicators, including life expectancy, literacy rates, and infant mortality rates, India consistently placed between 124 and 128 in the ranking of about 175 countries since 1998. While its absolute development grade has been going up, these marginal gains are not what one would expect to see in a "development success story." A quick scan of the Human Development Index rankings shows a number of other countries outpacing India's sluggish progress. These include big countries with similar sets of challenges, such as China (81), Brazil (70), and South Africa (121). It also includes smaller countries such as Cuba (51), which has done well despite a hugely damaging economic blockade orchestrated by the world's only superpower, and Guatemala (118), which has improved dramatically only a decade after the end of a 36-year-long civil war.
Despite the poor numbers, one Indian state has done remarkably well. The southern state of Kerala boasts nearly universal literacy — 91% as opposed to the Indian national average of 65%. It's also one of the fastest growing states in India, second only to the tourism-rich state of Goa.
Ashes of the American Raj in China: John Leighton Stuart, Pearl S. Buck, and Edgar Snow
Charles W. Hayford
In a minor skirmish in the history wars, or what might be called “ashes diplomacy,” Chinese authorities finally allowed the ashes of America’s last ambassador to China before 1949, John Leighton Stuart (1876-1964), to be interred next to the graves of his parents in Hangzhou, the southern Chinese city where he was born.
Earlier this fall, local authorities in Zhenjiang, a city on the Yangzi known for its vinegar, opened a Pearl Buck Museum in the house where Buck (1892-1973) spent most of her first eighteen years. The ashes of another historic figure, Edgar Snow (1905-1971), are divided between the Hudson River and a spot by the Nameless Lake on the campus of Beijing University, which had been the campus of Yenching University. Leighton Stuart was president when Snow taught there in the 1930s.
China's Economy: Some Reason for Hope
Soaring stocks, rising steel prices, and a glimpse of a real estate recovery suggest business confidence is growing as China's massive stimulus package kicks in
By Frederik Balfour
The economic news from China looks anything but encouraging these days. The export slump is deepening, corporate earnings in the third quarter fell 13% from a year earlier, while industrial output growth has hit a seven-year low and cash-flow problems are plaguing airlines, manufacturers, and beleaguered property companies. The latest evidence of a slowdown: China's auto sales fell 10% in November from a year earlier.
But this litany of woes may indeed mark the beginning of the end of China's economic travails, say China watchers. "Don't be disheartened by disappointing numbers in the fourth quarter," says Jing Ulrich, managing director and chairman of China equities at JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in Hong Kong, who says growth in industrial production and exports may be negative. "I feel there is a glimmer of hope, and the second quarter will show signs of economic recovery." By that time the benefits of China's massive $582 billion stimulus package (BusinessWeek.com, 11/9/08) could start to flow through, and the economy could kick into a higher gear once again. Annual gross domestic product growth could well slow to 7% in the first half but exceed 8% in the second half, says Ulrich, ensuring that the economy chugs along fast enough to prevent unemployment from rising.
The Serious Business Of War
11 Dec 2008, 0006 hrs IST, Maroof Raza
The suggestion of external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee that India could exercise a military option against Pakistan has alarmed the international community, particularly the US, that a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours could see the first ever use of nuclear weapons by both sides. It is precisely this nuclear nightmare scenario that Pakistan's establishment and its military brass, in particular, have often exploited to blackmail the world each time India wants to take them to task for their many acts of terror. Is war really an option?
On at least one occasion in the recent past after the attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001 India appeared serious about exercising the military option against Pakistan. Apparently, our politicians were energised only when they were directly targeted; as if, the deaths of thousands of other Indians mostly by Pakistan-sponsored terror groups weren't reason enough. But the only chance to hit Pakistan with swift air attacks was in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the Parliament. Technically, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), where many of the terror camps were located, is a part of India, since India claims all of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hitting terror camps within it can thus be justified. This opportunity was lost as the Vajpayee government dithered.
Arundhati Roy: Mumbai was not our 9/11
The author on the Mumbai terror attacks and India's responseArundhati Roy guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 December 2008 20.21 GMT Article history
Azam Amir Kasab, the face of the Mumbai attacks. Photograph: Reuters
We've forfeited the rights to our own tragedies. As the carnage in Mumbai raged on, day after horrible day, our 24-hour news channels informed us that we were watching "India's 9/11". Like actors in a Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood film, we're expected to play our parts and say our lines, even though we know it's all been said and done before.
As tension in the region builds, US Senator John McCain has warned Pakistan that if it didn't act fast to arrest the "Bad Guys" he had personal information that India would launch air strikes on "terrorist camps" in Pakistan and that Washington could do nothing because Mumbai was India's 9/11.
But November isn't September, 2008 isn't 2001, Pakistan isn't Afghanistan and India isn't America. So perhaps we should reclaim our tragedy and pick through the debris with our own brains and our own broken hearts so that we can arrive at our own conclusions.
There is a fierce, unforgiving fault-line that runs through the contemporary discourse on terrorism. On one side (let's call it Side A) are those who see terrorism, especially "Islamist" terrorism, as a hateful, insane scourge that spins on its own axis, in its own orbit and has nothing to do with the world around it, nothing to do with history, geography or economics. Therefore, Side A says, to try and place it in a political context, or even try to understand it, amounts to justifying it and is a crime in itself.
Side B believes that though nothing can ever excuse or justify terrorism, it exists in a particular time, place and political context, and to refuse to see that will only aggravate the problem and put more and more people in harm's way. Which is a crime in itself.
So, on balance, if I had to choose between Side A and Side B, I'd pick Side B. We need context. Always.
In this nuclear subcontinent that context is partition. The Radcliffe Line, which separated India and Pakistan and tore through states, districts, villages, fields, communities, water systems, homes and families, was drawn virtually overnight. It was Britain's final, parting kick to us. Partition triggered the massacre of more than a million people and the largest migration of a human population in contemporary history. Eight million people, Hindus fleeing the new Pakistan, Muslims fleeing the new kind of India left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
It has left Kashmir trapped in a nightmare from which it can't seem to emerge, a nightmare that has claimed more than 60,000 lives.
It's hard to understand why those who steer India's ship are so keen to replicate Pakistan's mistakes and call damnation upon this country by inviting the United States to further meddle clumsily and dangerously in our extremely complicated affairs. A superpower never has allies. It only has agents.
Ex-President of Taiwan Is Indicted
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: December 12, 2008
BEIJING — Chen Shui-bian, who served eight years as president of Taiwan, was indicted Friday on corruption charges, making him the first former president of the island to face criminal prosecution.
Mr. Chen, who served from 2000 to last May, faces charges that he and his family pocketed millions of dollars in campaign funds. “Ex-President Chen Shui-bian’s crimes are major,” said Chen Yun-nan, a spokesman for the Supreme Court’s special prosecutor’s office. “We will ask the courts to give ex-President Chen Shui-bian the strictest punishment.”
India nuclear deal puts world at risk
By Jimmy Carter
Published: September 11, 2008
Knowing since 1974 of India's nuclear ambitions, other American presidents and I have maintained a consistent global policy: no sales of nuclear technology or uncontrolled fuel to any country that refuses to sign the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT. To imbed this concept as official national policy, I worked closely with bipartisan leaders in the U.S. Congress to pass the Non-Proliferation Act of 1978.
More recently, in 2006, the Hyde Act was passed and signed by President George W. Bush to define appropriate terms of the proposed U.S.-India nuclear agreement. Both laws were designed to encourage universal compliance with basic terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which has been accepted by more than 180 nations. Only Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea are not participating, the first three having nuclear arsenals that are advanced, and the fourth's being embryonic. Today, these global restraints are in the process of being abandoned.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT]
Obama will take forward the Indo-US nuclear deal: Aide
23 Nov 2008, 1643 hrs IST, PTI
NEW DELHI: Terming the Indo-US nuclear deal as the "tipping point" in the new relationship between the two countries, a key aide of
President-elect Barack Obama has expressed confidence that the new administration will take forward that agreement and build on it despite initial reservations the Democrat had on the issue.
Former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl Inderfurth said US would "encourage" India to follow suit if Washington ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Inderfurth hoped that the "significant agreement" concluded by the Bush administration will be pursued by Obama, who is also supporter of the landmark pact between the two countries.
"I think he is a strong supporter of the agreement.
[Nuclear deal]
India's Saran Says Obama Supports Civil Nuclear Deal
By Kartik Goyal
Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama supports the civil nuclear agreement with India, Shyam Saran, special envoy of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said in New Delhi.
``Obama looks upon this agreement as a very important step in strengthening the relationship between India and the U.S.,'' Saran said today.
The accord signed on Oct. 10 ended India's three-decade isolation and allows U.S. companies such as General Electric Co. to sell atomic fuel and technology to the South Asian nation's growing energy sector. The agreement came after the U.S. helped India secure the right to buy equipment and fuel from the 45- member Nuclear Suppliers Group in September.
The change in the government won't affect the nuclear accord, said Dale Klein, Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
U.S. suppliers want India to sign a treaty that would help shield them from liability in the event of a nuclear accident at the plants they expect to help build, Klein said.
``The U.S. industry would like to see India become a part of that convention,'' he said. The liability treaty is known as the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage.
The treaty makes plant operators, usually a utility, responsible for damages from any accident and shields suppliers from liability. Operators must set aside about $450 million for compensation in case of damage, and governments that sign the treaty would cover additional claims.
In May, the U.S. became only the fourth country to ratify the treaty; the others are Argentina, Morocco and Romania. At least one other country, such as Japan, that meets a required minimum of nuclear power output must ratify the treaty for it to go into effect. India's ratification alone wouldn't be enough because the country doesn't have sufficient current generation capacity to reach the threshold.
[Nuclear deal]
India, Russia ink nuclear deal
The Associated Press
Published: December 5, 2008
NEW DELHI: India and Russia signed a civilian nuclear deal Friday that would see Russia build four nuclear reactors for power-starved India.
The deal, inked during a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, was one of ten agreements, including the sale of 80 military helicopters and space cooperation.
"The signing of the agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with Russia marks a new milestone in the history of our cooperation with Russia in the field of nuclear energy," said Singh.
The deal follows the conclusion of a landmark nuclear deal between the United States and India earlier this year which opened the way for nuclear trade between India and other nations.
[Nuclear deal] [Unintended consequences] [India Russia]
Obama-Clinton Policy Team Hits Fast Wall: India
by Jason Horowitz on December 2, 2008
As Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton stood at a Dec. 1 press conference in Chicago to announce her nomination as secretary of state, they promised the country, and the world, a much-needed push toward the restoration of world order.
It would be, Mr. Obama said, “a new beginning—a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century.”
Except, perhaps, in the one place where order is needed most.
The Bush administration saw the nation as a counterweight to China in the region and pushed through a controversial deal, independent of recognized nonproliferation treaties, that permitted civilian nuclear trade between the U.S. and India. (Mr. Obama initially opposed the deal on the grounds that it gave India a “blank check” that could encourage an arms race in the region. He eventually supported the bill, which passed in October, when some of his restrictions, including measures meant to deter stockpiling, were implemented.)
But the president-elect’s restrained posture on India was perceived by the country’s political leadership as a snub, according to India experts.
“Over the life of the Bush administration, they saw a major breakthrough with India on this nuclear deal and major shifts in the nature of government-to-government interactions with India,” said Mr. Markey. “Most people that I’ve talked to on the Obama side are more inclined to see the next period with India as one of consolidating those gains and maybe pushing ahead on some things that are more economic. But it is not by any stretch the priority, really, that Pakistan is.”
[Nuclear deal] [India US Pakistan]
Quakes over China's water plan
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Even as India and China are yet to resolve their decades-old territorial dispute, another conflict is looming. China's diversion of the waters of a river originating in Tibet to its water-scarce areas could leave India's northeast parched. This is expected to trigger new tensions in the already difficult relations between the two Asian giants.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is reported during his recent Beijing visit to have raised the issue of international rivers flowing out of Tibet. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has said that water scarcity threatened the very "survival of the Chinese nation".
The river in question is the Brahmaputra
[China India relations]
India, Russia regain elan of friendship
By M K Bhadrakumar
The visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to New Delhi last week turned out to be an occasion for the Indian government to fundamentally reassess the strategic significance of the traditional India-Russia partnership. No doubt, the visit took place at a turning point in contemporary history and politics against the backdrop of massive shifts in the international system.
Medvedev arrived in India in the immediate aftermath of the horrific terrorist strikes on Mumbai. The regional security situation - especially Afghanistan - naturally figured prominently in the agenda of the visit.
The joint declaration signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Medvedev after extensive talks in New Delhi reflects that the two sides have taken serious pains to understand each other's vital concerns and have endeavored to go more than half the distance to accommodate them. They also made a conscious effort to expand their common ground in the international system. After a considerable lapse of time, Russian-Indian relationship seems to be on the move.
[SCO] [India Russia]
Anniversary of DPRK-China Agreement on Cooperation Marked
Pyongyang, December 9 (KCNA) -- The Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Commerce of China gave a reception in Beijing on December 4 to mark the 55th anniversary of the conclusion of the DPRK-China agreement on economic and cultural cooperation.
Present there on invitation were Ambassador Choe Jin Su and staff members of the DPRK embassy in Beijing. Minister Cai Wu and the vice-minister of Culture of China and other officials concerned were on hand.
[China NK]
Pakistan Raids Group Tied to Attacks
By JANE PERLEZ and SALMAN MASOOD
Published: December 8, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — After mounting pressure from the United States and India, Pakistani authorities raided a camp run by the militant group suspected of carrying out the Mumbai attacks, Pakistani and American officials said Monday.
The operation on Sunday appeared to be Pakistan’s first concrete response to the demands from India and the United States to take action against the militants suspected in the attacks, which have raised tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors to their highest point in years.
The Pakistani authorities said that among those arrested was Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who Indian and American officials say masterminded the attacks for the militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to a State Department official in Washington.
The Terrorists Want to Destroy Pakistan, Too
By ASIF ALI ZARDARI
Published: December 8, 2008
Islamabad, Pakistan
THE recent death and destruction in Mumbai, India, brought to my mind the death and destruction in Karachi on Oct. 18, 2007, when terrorists attacked a festive homecoming rally for my wife, Benazir Bhutto. Nearly 150 Pakistanis were killed and more than 450 were injured. The terrorist attacks in Mumbai may be a news story for most of the world. For me it is a painful reality of shared experience. Having seen my wife escape death by a hairbreadth on that day in Karachi, I lost her in a second, unfortunately successful, attempt two months later.
The Mumbai attacks were directed not only at India but also at Pakistan’s new democratic government and the peace process with India that we have initiated. Supporters of authoritarianism in Pakistan and non-state actors with a vested interest in perpetuating conflict do not want change in Pakistan to take root.
To foil the designs of the terrorists, the two great nations of Pakistan and India, born together from the same revolution and mandate in 1947, must continue to move forward with the peace process. Pakistan is shocked at the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. We can identify with India’s pain. I am especially empathetic. I feel this pain every time I look into the eyes of my children.
China's Global Search for Energy Security: cooperation and competition in the Asia-Pacific
Suisheng Zhao
Abstract
China has adopted a state-centered approach towards energy security to deepen political and commercial relationships with all energy producing nations and to aggressively invest in oil fields and pipelines around the world. Applying this approach to its relations with its Asia-Pacific neighbors has produced mixed results. While China's energy diplomacy has brought about opportunities for cooperation with some of its neighbors, notably some countries in Central Asia and continental Southeast Asia, it has become a source of conflict with some other neighbors, especially those with border disputes over maritime territories which may have rich natural resources. This paper examines China's state-led search for energy security and its implications for China's relations with Asia-Pacific countries.
[Energy security]
Luxury marques look to India
By Joe Leahy in Mumbai
Published: December 7 2008 23:19 | Last updated: December 7 2008 23:19
Jaguar and Land Rover, the UK based carmakers, are to set up dealership networks in India soon as they seek to use ties with Tata Motors, their new owner, to find new markets.
India’s largest automotive company is encouraging the luxury carmakers to explore its domestic market following the success of Land Rover in emerging economies such as China and Russia.
Pakistan’s Spies Aided Group Tied to Mumbai Siege
By ERIC SCHMITT, MARK MAZZETTI AND JANE PERLEZ
Published: December 7, 2008
This article was reported by Eric Schmitt, Mark Mazzetti and Jane Perlez and written by Mr. Schmitt.
WASHINGTON — Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant group suspected of conducting the Mumbai attacks, has quietly gained strength in recent years with the help of Pakistan’s main spy service, assistance that has allowed the group to train and raise money while other militants have been under siege, American intelligence and counterterrorism officials say.
American officials say there is no hard evidence to link the spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, to the Mumbai attacks. But the ISI has shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it, the officials said, and investigators are focusing on one Lashkar leader they believe is a main liaison with the spy service and a mastermind of the attacks.
[ISI]
After Mumbai
Editorial
This article appeared in the December 22, 2008 edition of The Nation.
December 3, 2008
The aftermath of the bloody terrorist attack in Mumbai won't be confined to the city, or to India. It threatens to cascade across the region, from India to Pakistan to Afghanistan and beyond, making the interlocked conflicts in South Asia dramatically worse. Even if it doesn't result in what ought to be unthinkable, but isn't--a war between two hostile, nuclear-armed powers--it could easily escalate into a full-blown crisis.
India's Muslims
Comment
By Barbara Crossette
This article appeared in the December 22, 2008 edition of The Nation.
December 3, 2008
India and the United States have blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba, an extremist group based in Pakistan, for the horrific terrorist attack in Mumbai. But we cannot rule out the involvement of local people, and there are in fact major rifts in Indian society between Muslims and Hindus.
India's Muslims have deep grievances. Reports by Indian experts substantiate these grievances with statistics; Muslim victims of Hindu attacks fill in the anecdotal evidence; outsiders concur. A Council on Foreign Relations study concluded in 2007 that Indian Muslims are "marginalized" and that the government was dealing only "to some degree" with the problem. A United Nations report further suggested that such conditions could spark serious unrest.
Why Mumbai?
Darryl D’Monte
Everyone in today’s globalised world will continue to pay a heavy price as long as imbalances and injustices continue to exist in places like Palestine.
I am writing this from a walled mediaeval Italian town, Viterbo, not far from Rome. It is disarmingly sunny and bright, in the crisp cold of early winter and one feels safe and secure, far from the mayhem in Mumbai. And yet, one is immediately drawn into it, when the world is saturated with it by the media. No one can any longer be isolated from global events in any part of the world.
The current attacks are on an altogether new plane. Mumbai has now faced the brunt of post-9/11 global terror. If Anglo-Saxons have been specifically targeted, the inference is obvious. These mujahideen aren’t wreaking only vengeance against Hindu militants or the Indian State but attempting to strike back at “The War on Terror”. It is a message for President Bush and his erstwhile partner in arms, Tony Blair. They are sending an unequivocal signal to the U.S. President-elect that they are making a statement against the continuance of old interventionist policies.
While the exact timing of these attacks may have to do with Barack Obama’s elevation in two months, the prelude may well be India’s entry into the nuclear deal with the U.S., which will clearly be seen as the country opting to align itself, for better or worse, with America. In all the euphoria over the end of India’s isolated status among the haves of the nuclear world, the foreign policy shift cannot have been lost on the terrorists. One can state, with some degree of certainty, that India should gird its loins for far more terrorist attacks in the months and years to come. Alliance of this dubious nature will extract its own, terrible costs.
[Nuclear deal]
Mumbai Attacks Politicize Long-Isolated Elite
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: December 6, 2008
MUMBAI, India — Last Wednesday, an extraordinary public interest lawsuit was filed in this city’s highest court. It charged that the government had lagged in its constitutional duty to protect its citizens’ right to life, and it pressed the state to modernize and upgrade its security forces.
The lawsuit was striking mainly for the people behind it: investment bankers, corporate lawyers and representatives of some of India’s largest companies, which have their headquarters here in the country’s financial capital, also known as Bombay. The Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the city’s largest business association, joined as a petitioner. It was the first time it had lent its name to litigation in the public interest.
The three-day siege of Mumbai, which ended a week ago, was a watershed for India’s prosperous classes. It prompted many of those who live in their own private Indias, largely insulated from the country’s dysfunction, to demand a vital public service: safety.
Since the attacks, which killed 163 people, plus nine gunmen, there has been an outpouring of anger from unlikely quarters. On Wednesday, tens of thousands of urban, English-speaking, tank-top-wearing citizens stormed the Gateway of India, a famed waterfront monument, venting anger at their elected leaders. There were similar protests in the capital, New Delhi, and the southern technology hubs, Bangalore and Hyderabad. All were organized spontaneously, with word spread through text messages and Facebook pages.
On Saturday, young people affiliated with a new political party, called Loksatta, or people’s power, gathered at the Gateway, calling for a variety of reforms, including banning criminals from running for political office. (Virtually every political party has convicts and suspects among its elected officials.)
Social networking sites were ablaze with memorials and citizens’ action groups, including one that advocated refraining from voting altogether as an act of civil disobedience. Never mind that in India, voter turnout among the rich is far lower than among the poor.
Another group advocated not paying taxes, as though that would improve the quality of public services. An e-mail campaign began Saturday called “I Am Clean,” urging citizens not to bribe police officers or drive through red lights.
How Risky Is India?
In the wake of the Mumbai siege, business must weigh the persistence of political violence against the strength and promise of the Indian miracle
http://images.businessweek.com/story/08/600/1204_mz_india.jpg
By Mehul Srivastava and Nandini Lakshman
New Delhi/Mumbai - Until Nov. 26 the strongest force pushing India forward was a mix of good fundamentals and that intangible something that industry calls "sentiment." Forged in the years of 9% growth, this euphoria inspired Indians to economic greatness and lured outside investors eager to be part of the Indian miracle.
Then the shooting started in south Mumbai. The three horrendous days that followed laid bare the gaps between India's image and reality, sparking a nationwide introspection about the nation's future. The fear is that India's mounting problems could drag the country back to its pitiful past. Its governments, despite a manufactured public image, have always been unwieldy; its economy, despite the plenty of the boom years, is premised mostly on future potential; and its much-flaunted stability is no such thing.
India's fragility is revealed by a pattern of diffused violence—a bomb here, a killing there—that goes unnoticed even in India. Most outsiders (and most investors) don't realize how dangerous a place India can be. Since 1993, when 13 bomb blasts in one day killed 257 in Mumbai, just over 29,000 people have died in terrorist attacks, including insurgencies in Kashmir and the Northeast, according to a BusinessWeek analysis of data from the Home Affairs Ministry. Thousands more have died in anti-Muslim riots. At least another 4,500 have perished since 2002 in a Maoist rebellion that simmers, and sometimes boils over, in the mineral-rich region of Chattisgarh, where foreign companies plan to invest heavily.
[Image]
Terror in India: The Political Fallout Spreads
The investigation of the Mumbai terrorist attacks continues, but pressure is increasing for the Indian government to react forcefully
By Mehul Srivastava
Related Items
The political fallout from the terrorist attacks in Mumbai is roiling India. As funeral pyres burned on live television and mass candlelit vigils turned into sober protests against the government's perceived intelligence failures and mishandling of the attacks that left as many as 175 people dead (BusinessWeek.com, 11/27/08), pressure mounted on the Indian government to react forcefully.
Tensions are rising with Pakistan, as Indian officials point to ties between the terrorists and forces inside India's longtime rival. In an off-the-record meeting with BusinessWeek and representatives of two newspapers, a senior official at India's Research & Analysis Wing, the country's equivalent of the CIA, shared transcripts of text messages and e-mails that were sent to the gunmen inside Mumbai's Taj hotel, where dozens of people were killed in a 60-hour siege. The messages, some in Urdu and purportedly from phone numbers registered inside Pakistan, included explicit military-style instructions to the gunmen to retreat to different wings of the hotel and referred to the gunmen as Team A and Team B. Some were congratulatory notes.
Because the Indian intelligence official did not allow reporters to make copies of the messages, BusinessWeek could not independently verify their authenticity. However, CNN-IBN, a TV channel, has broadcast call logs from satellite phones that include several phone calls to Karachi and Jalalabad, both in Pakistan (sic).
The Sovereignty Dodge
What Pakistan Won't Do, the World Should
By Robert Kagan
Tuesday, December 2, 2008; Page A21
"We don't think the world's great nations and countries can be held hostage by non-state actors," Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said yesterday. Fair enough. But what is the world to do when those non-state actors operate from the territory of a state and are the creation of that state's intelligence services?
Rather than simply begging the Indians to show restraint, a better option could be to internationalize the response. Have the international community declare that parts of Pakistan have become ungovernable and a menace to international security. Establish an international force to work with the Pakistanis to root out terrorist camps in Kashmir as well as in the tribal areas. This would have the advantage of preventing a direct military confrontation between India and Pakistan. It might also save face for the Pakistani government, since the international community would be helping the central government reestablish its authority in areas where it has lost it. But whether or not Islamabad is happy, don't the international community and the United States, at the end of the day, have some obligation to demonstrate to the Indian people that we take attacks on them as seriously as we take attacks on ourselves?
[Sovereignty]
How U.S. Should Respond to Mumbai Attacks
By Peter Bergen, New America Foundation
CNN.com | December 1, 2008
The larger aim of the incoming Barack Obama administration should be to put additional effort into bringing a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir dispute that underlies the tensions between India and Pakistan.
A captured suspect in the Mumbai attacks has told police that he is Pakistani, Indian officials say. CNN's sister station, CNN-IBN, reports that the alleged terrorist said he was trained by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terror group that opposes India over the disputed Kashmir region.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, known by its initials LeT in the counter-terrorism community, should be the leading suspect in the attacks, according to a U.S. counterterrorism official who closely follows South Asia.
"My money is on LeT. They've been getting lots of operational experience in Afghanistan and the younger LeT guys are trigger-happy. The countries they aim to destroy: India, U.S. and Israel. Looks like they hit all three in Mumbai," the official says.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba has conducted high-profile attacks in India, including an attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, which brought Pakistan and India to the brink of war the following year.
The Indian Parliament attack displayed a modus operandi similar to the recent Mumbai attacks. It involved several attackers armed with automatic weapons, willing to die in an operation that, while it was not a conventional suicide attack, was suicidal in intent. Only one of the 11 gunmen identified so far in the Mumbai attacks has survived.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba derives strength from the fact that, like the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, it draws on a much wider base of support than many terrorist organizations. Until January of 2002, when it was officially banned following the attack on the Indian Parliament, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba maintained 2,200 offices around the country and attracted hundreds of thousands of followers to its annual gatherings. Its charitable arm also runs schools and medical clinics and played an important role in earthquake relief efforts in Kashmir in 2005.
[Separatism]
The Mumbai Paradox
Thursday, December 04, 2008
As India Bleeds, Pakistan Gets Pushed Closer to its Breaking Point
The rhetoric of the Global War on Terror doesn’t seem to have its old magic anymore.
In the aftermath of the horrendous Mumbai attacks, it seems there were just as many articles in the papers saying this wasn’t Mumbai’s 9/11 as there were efforts to raise the bloody flag of America’s catastrophe over the carnage.
The most conspicuous example of 9/11 exhaustion is Pakistan.
According to the GWOT mythology, Pakistan experienced its galvanizing moment in the suicide bombing of the Islamabad Marriott Hotel, and the people and government of Pakistan are now standing shoulder to shoulder with the world’s democracies to combat extremism.
However, after the initial shock of the Mumbai attack wore off in Pakistan—and the international narrative that the attackers were Pakistani coalesced--there was an immediate and emotional rejection of the idea that long-suffering Pakistan should be further destabilized under U.S. and Indian insistence that the miscreants be pursued inside Pakistan’s borders.
A common theme in Pakistan’s media is that the Mumbai attack was carried out by Hindu extremists, or even was a false flag operation carried out by India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to provoke a conflict with Pakistan.
One commenter opined, Maybe this wasn’t India’s 9/11. Maybe it was India’s Oklahoma City.
[ISI]
Rice in Pakistan, urges a tough line on terrorism
By James Lamont in New Delhi, Joe Leahy in Mumbai and Farhan Bokhari, Pakistan correspondent and agencies
Published: December 3 2008 06:25 | Last updated: December 4 2008 05:19
Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, made an unannounced trip to Pakistan on Thursday to urge the Pakistani government to take a ”tough line” on terrorism in the wake of last week’s militant attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai.
”The global threat of extremism and terrorism has to be met by all states, taking a very tough and hard line, and so that is what I am going to discuss,” Rice told reporters travelling with her from New Delhi to Islamabad.
Pakistan has to determine its own response here. It just needs to be a robust response and it needs to be effective,” she said.
“[The Indians] are probably thinking of Pakistan’s response in the same way that we handed over hundreds of people to the US since the war on terror began,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a respected Pakistani scholar. “This is a different relationship.”
Western banks face snub by China fund
By Raphael Minder in Hong Kong and Geoff Dyer and Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
Published: December 3 2008 19:34 | Last updated: December 3 2008 19:34
China Investment Corp, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, will no longer risk investing in western financial institutions because of concerns about their viability and a lack of consistency in their governments’ policies, according to its chairman.
“Right now we don’t have the courage to invest in financial institutions because we don’t know what problems we will put ourselves into,” Lou Jiwei said on Wednesday.
Mumbai Attack Is Test of Pakistan’s Ability to Curb Militants
By JANE PERLEZ and SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: December 3, 2008
LAHORE, Pakistan — Mounting evidence of links between the Mumbai terrorist attacks and a Pakistani militant group is posing the stiffest test so far of Pakistan’s new government, raising questions whether it can — or wants to — rein in militancy here.
President Asif Ali Zardari says his government has no concrete evidence of Pakistani involvement in the attacks, and American officials have not established a direct link to the government. But as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice landed in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Thursday morning, pressure was building on the government to confront the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which Indian and American officials say carried out the Mumbai attacks
A fresh start or a protracted showdown?
By Peter J Brown
United States president-elect Barack Obama has some tough choices to make with respect to how he will deals with China in space. He might prefer to proclaim the advantages of cooperation with China in terms of space exploration and other activities, but the execution of any plan where the US is perceived as letting its guard down is going to draw a lot of criticism from conservatives, a wing of the US Congress which has been deeply suspicious of the Chinese space program from the start.
[China confrontation]
Strange storm brews in South Asia
By M K Bhadrakumar
No sooner had the guns fallen silent and the terrorist carnage ended in Mumbai than a keen three-way diplomatic tussle began involving India, Pakistan and the United States. The two South Asian nuclear powers are locked in race to get the US on their respective side.
For the US, though, it is no longer a matter of acting as a fair-minded, neutral mediator. Today, Washington is a full-fledged participant with its own stakes in the South Asian strategic power equations, thanks to the war in Afghanistan, which is critically poised. Indeed, the South Asian brew couldn't be more strange.
Al-Qaeda 'hijack' led to Mumbai attack
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
MILAN - A plan by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that had been in the pipelines for several months - even though official policy was to ditch it - saw what was to be a low-profile attack in Kashmir turn into the massive attacks on Mumbai last week.
The original plan was highjacked by the Laskar-e-Taiba (LET), a Pakistani militant group that generally focussed on the Kashmir struggle, and al-Qaeda, resulting in the deaths of nearly 200 people in Mumbai as groups of militants sprayed bullets and hand grenades at hotels, restaurants and train stations, as well as a Jewish community center.
The attack has sent shock waves across India and threatens to revive the intense periods of hostility the two countries have endured since their independence from British India in 1947.
There is now the possibility that Pakistan will undergo another about-turn and rethink its support of the "war in terror"; until the end of 2001, it supported the Taliban administration in Afghanistan. It could now back off from its restive tribal areas, leaving the Taliban a free hand to consolidate their Afghan insurgency.
A US State Department official categorically mentioned that Pakistan's "smoking gun" could turn the US's relations with Pakistan sour. The one militant captured - several were killed - is reported to have been a Pakistani trained by the LET.
But the public is not impressed that the dapper minister's head has rolled. The wounds on the Indian psyche cut deep. And there is a growing possibility that the public anger may result in a wild swing in the popular mood toward right-wing nationalist politics in the ongoing provincial assembly elections and the fast-approaching parliamentary elections.
U.S. and India See Link to Militants in Pakistan
By ERIC SCHMITT, SOMINI SENGUPTA and JANE PERLEZ
Published: December 2, 2008
This article is by Eric Schmitt, Somini Sengupta and Jane Perlez.
WASHINGTON — American and Indian authorities said Tuesday that there was now little doubt that militants inside Pakistan had directed the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Indian officials said they had identified three or four masterminds of the deadly assault, stepping up pressure on Pakistan to act against the perpetrators of one of the worst terrorist attacks in India’s history.
The Region: India and Israel: The parallels
Nov 30, 2008 20:27 | Updated Dec 2, 2008 8:12
By BARRY RUBIN [Recent columns]
For years, India has been subjected to periodic terrorist attacks throughout the country. But what happened in Mumbai is something new and different: a full-scale terrorist war.
This is the kind of threat and problem Israel has been facing for decades. What are the lessons for India from Israel's experience?
FINALLY, THERE is the dangerous "root cause" argument. Many Western intellectuals and journalists - as well as some governments - are ready to blame the victim of terrorism. In Israel's case, despite desperate efforts to promote peace - concessions, territorial withdrawals and the offer of a Palestinian state - it is said to be the villain for not giving the Palestinians enough.
The terrorists and their sponsors use this situation to their advantage. By being intransigent - demanding so much and offering so little - they keep the conflict going and are able to pose as victims simultaneously.
Will some suggest that if India merely gives up Kashmir and makes various concessions, the problem will go away? This might not happen but it is worth keeping an eye on such a trend.
here are about as many Hindus and Sikhs as there are Muslims and, as one Indian reader put it, "There is a Hindi saying: One and one makes 11. It is time for India and Israel to become allies. It is a jihad we are both facing."
[Separatism] [India Israel] [Global insurgency] [Islam]
Alchemists of Resentment: The Fires in South Asia
By Vijay Prashad
December 1, 2008
No one would have believed in the last years of the twentieth century that this world would be in such tumult over so little that is understood. Unimaginable violence, most of it for triumphs that are obscure. Politics buried so deep in their actions, that the motives disappear in the flames, and the suffering itself becomes the end. Aerial bombardment of entire countries, cold-blooded massacre of citizenries. Armies set in place to hold people down, and themselves held down by their inexperience and bewilderment. Populations motivated for revenge rather than for revolution, harmed beyond belief and then diverted from their oppressors to take their justice where it comes. A cheapened world, where values are given over to pieties, and tears quickly dry into the very rage that created them in the first place. Time is circular: this is the myth of eternal return, with the avenging angel appearing once as Demon, then Angel, then Demon again. This is our cauldron.
China Looks Beyond India-Japan Space Alliance to the US Connection
Peter J. Brown
India and Japan's October agreement to expand cooperation in disaster management between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has raised the ire of a China fearful that the US is masterminding a powerful space alliance between its allies in the region.
[China confrontation] [India Japan]
Reaching Out Across the Strait
Publication Date:12/01/2008
Byline:
Cross-strait ties between Taiwan and mainland China have witnessed some remarkable progress during the past six months. Since President Ma Ying-jeou took office on May 20, the Republic of China government has moved quickly to re-establish cross-strait dialogue, ending an impasse of nearly 10 years.
Concrete steps to promoting peace and opening up trade across the Taiwan Strait have followed since then. The day after the presidential inauguration, the legislature took up the issue of allowing the direct exchange of the NT dollar and mainland China's currency, the renminbi. Soon after, the new Cabinet moved to ease restrictions on various cross-strait securities and capital investments.
[Straits]
Zardari urges united stand
By Farhan Bokhari in London, James Lamont in New Delhi and Joe Leahy in Mumbai
Published: November 30 2008 19:41 | Last updated: November 30 2008 19:41
Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s president, made an urgent appeal to India on Sunday not to punish his country for the terror unleashed on Mumbai last week, warning that militants had the power to precipitate a war in the region.
As the government in New Delhi faced mounting domestic recriminations after the three-day terrorist rampage in Mumbai, Mr Zardari urged Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, to resist striking out at his government should investigations show that Pakistani militant groups were responsible for the attacks.
Speaking exclusively to the Financial Times, Pakistan’s president warned that provocation by rogue “non-state actors” posed the danger of a return to war between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
When Zardari came to town
Karan Thapar
November 29, 2008
First Published: 22:26 IST(29/11/2008)
“There’s a little bit of India in every Pakistani and a little bit of Pakistan in every Indian. I do not know whether it is the Indian or the Pakistani in me that is talking today”
The more I think about what he said, the more stunned I am he said it. But it’s not just his content that is startling. The fact that Asif Zardari was speaking as President of Pakistan to an Indian audience, in full knowledge that he was doing so on live television, makes his statements all the more amazing. Not one of his predecessors would have spoken so openly and with such obvious personal conviction. Indeed even his late wife, Benazir, would have been more circumspect.
Mumbai terror attacks: India fury at Pakistan as bloody siege is crushed•
Lone surviving militant 'reveals terror group links'
• Death toll at 200 as hotel clearedRandeep Ramesh and Vikram Dodd in Mumbai, Jason Burke in Islamabad, and Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk, Sunday November 30 2008 00.01 GMT The Observer, Sunday November 30 2008 Article history
Neeta, the sister of Harish Gohil, who was shot dead by the terrorists, mourns over his body at his funeral in Mumbai. Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated last night after it was claimed that the only terrorist to have survived three days of deadly battles in Mumbai was from Pakistan, and that his nine fellow Islamist militants were either from that country or had been trained there.
The claims about responsibility for the attack, in which almost 200 people were killed, came from leaked police accounts that gave details of the interrogation of Azam Amir Kasab, 21, said to have been the man pictured at Mumbai's main train station carrying an assault rifle and grenades.
According to the reports, which could not be independently verified, Kasab said that the operation was the responsibility of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a jihadist group based in Pakistan, and its aim was to 'kill as many as possible' in what was intended to be India's 9/11.
[Global insurgency]
The Case for a Really Long Engagement
By Thomas J. Christensen
Sunday, November 30, 2008; Page B05
Few diplomatic relationships are deeper or more complex than that between the United States and China. While the Pentagon draws up contingency plans for a potential conflict with China, U.S. businesses are investing billions there, and American consumers stock their wardrobes, toy chests, garages and kitchens with products "Made in China." How should the Obama administration handle these delicate ties? In the run-up to a Dec. 5 conference on "China and the Next Administration," sponsored by Outlook and CNA, a non-partisan think tank, we posed that question to four specialists. [US China relations]
Assault on India’s fabled city of dreams
By Ashutosh Varshney
Published: November 28 2008 20:46 | Last updated: November 28 2008 20:46
Terror has rocked India before but never have terrorists been so audacious. South Mumbai is India’s economic heart. This attack is “India’s 9/11”.
Mumbai is no routine urban agglomeration. It is a fabled city, where millions of Indians, migrating from poor hinterlands, seek a living; where rags-to-riches stories are not uncommon; where vast business deals are struck. It is where dreams are manufactured by a film industry that gives countless Indians relief from the struggles of life. Millions identify with the city.
Mumbai is a paradox. It has areas of appalling squalor but is India’s city of hope. It is in south Mumbai that the Tatas honed world-class business skills, Zubin Mehta learnt how to conduct Beethoven’s Fifth and Salman Rushdie understood how to turn the drama of everyday life into novels.
By targeting south Mumbai, the terrorists have not only attacked the economic symbol of a rising India but also its most globalised quarters.
Recently Indian democracy has been treated to the obverse of “Muslim terror”. Prima facie evidence and intelligence suggest the rise of Hindu networks practising terror against Muslims. In India’s democracy, terror has become identified not as an evil but as an outgrowth of the grievances of Muslims or Hindus, or as a sign of whether the Indian state is unfair to Muslims or Hindus. That is a recipe for further disasters.
Chinese exploit western job losses
By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
Published: November 28 2008 23:43 | Last updated: November 28 2008 23:43
Out-of-work finance professionals in the UK and US have a new reason for optimism about their employment prospects – especially if they speak Mandarin.
Chinese financial institutions are set to exploit the widespread job losses in western financial centres as a result of the credit crunch by next month embarking on a hunt for financial experts willing to relocate.
The Shanghai Financial Service Office has told state media the city is sending a delegation to New York, Chicago and London to recruit specialists in risk management, asset management, product research and development, macroeconomics and policy analysis.
Message of Sympathy to Indian President
Pyongyang, November 28 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, sent a message of sympathy to Pratibha Patil, President of India, on Friday as regards the simultaneous terrorist attacks in Mumbay that caused great human losses.
The message said that the DPRK government, opposed to all forms of terrorism and any support to it, strongly condemns this inhuman terrorist deed and extends firm solidarity with the Indian government's efforts to save the situation and maintain the social stability.
60% Have Anti-China Sentiment
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
People in Korea, China and Japan have negative feelings towards each other, and such recognition was stronger among the youth, according to a survey.
Koreans showed the most negative sentiment toward the two Asian nations.
The Northeast Asian History Foundation Thursday announced research conducted on 1,500 citizens in Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo, 500 each, in October. It is the foundation's second survey following last year.
According to the report, people of the three nations recognized one another more negatively than before.
About 59.8 percent of Koreans said the Korea-China relationship was not good, up from 34.5 percent last year.
Some 16 percent of Chinese thought the relationship between the two nations not good, also up from 6.6 percent last year.
Crisis May Shift India’s Political Landscape
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: November 28, 2008
MUMBAI, India — At midmorning on Friday, as Indian troops continued to comb through the devastated Oberoi hotel, an unexpected guest appeared on the sidewalk: Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and arguably India’s most incendiary politician.
Speaking before a row of television cameras, he said the central government had failed to tackle a growing terrorism threat and he found fault with a speech by India’s prime minister a day earlier. “The country expected a lot from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” he said, “but his address to the nation was disappointing.”
The appearance of Mr. Modi — who has been barred from entering the United States for violations of religious freedom — signaled how the two-day siege of Mumbai had instantly turned into political ammunition for coming national elections. After a string of attacks across Indian cities earlier this year, Mr. Modi’s party, also known as the B.J.P., pledged to make national security its main campaign issue. This week’s audacious attacks on the country’s commercial capital, and their timing, gave the party an additional boost.
[Communalism]
Between Israel and India, a Link Based on Culture and, Now, Terrorism
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
Published: November 28, 2008
Midway through Wednesday afternoon, Ani Anighotri was doing his multitasking thing, cruising the Internet while chatting with a friend about a recent business trip to his homeland, India, from his home in Georgia. Then an e-mail message popped onto his screen and ended the jocular conversation. The subject line said, “Attack in Mumbai.”
The accompanying message told Mr. Anighotri of reports of random shooting in Mumbai. He went to a Web site and found an account of a second, similar assault. Then, turning on an Indian cable television station, Mr. Anighotri saw a fire set by terrorists blazing in the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel, the same hotel in which he had stayed just three weeks earlier.
By Thursday morning, Mr. Anighotri had discovered another subtler point of connection. It was now clear that besides hotels, a café, a train station and two hospitals, the terrorists had invaded a Jewish outreach center, operated by the Chabad Lubavitch movement. Mr. Anighotri absorbed the news as the co-chairman of an 80-member group in the Atlanta area called the Indo-Jewish Coalition.
In its modest way, the coalition attests to the deepening bonds between Jews and Indians, whether in Israel, India or the United States; and this week’s events demonstrate perhaps the most visceral and grisly element of connection, though far from the only one
What to make of the Mumbai attacks
Kanishk Tharoor, 28 - 11 - 2008
(This article was first published on 27 November 2008)
The dust has yet to settle on the unfolding tragedy in Mumbai. At the time of writing, hostage situations persist in the Oberoi Hotel and the Nariman House, and commandos are still clearing the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Officials have not fully agreed on the chronology of events that have left at least one hundred people dead (including the city's anti-terrorist chief Hemant Karkare) and injured hundreds others, but the verdict is already in: this is the worst attack India has ever seen.
For an elite that almost always emerges unscathed from violence in the country, the attack comes as a visceral shock.
Within New Delhi itself, the fallout may be more consequential. The principal opposition party - the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - often uses terrorism as a stick to beat the ruling Congress Party-led coalition. The Congress government trimmed much of the tough, anti-terror Patriot Act-style legislation put in place by the previous BJP-led government. With elections upcoming and the Congress increasingly nervous, the clamour for more aggressive and invasive counterterrorism may win the day.
[Terrorism] [Human rights]
APEC success signals further warming of cross-strait ties
Sporting a traditional Peruvian poncho, Lien Chan (top left) joins his fellow APEC leaders in posing for the event's official group photograph at the conclusion of the summit. (CNA)
Publication Date:11/28/2008 By Ellen Ko
Lien Chan, Taiwan's envoy to this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit expressed satisfaction with the gathering's fruitful results after its Nov. 23 conclusion.
Under the watchful eye of the international media, Lien met with mainland Chinese leader Hu Jintao ahead of the summit's opening Nov. 21. The encounter lasted around 40 minutes and was described by both APEC representatives as a "meeting between old friends." Lien addressed Hu as "[Chinese Communist Party] General Secretary" while Hu called Lien "[Kuomintang Honorary] Chairman Lien."
ather than attending the meeting with mainland China's foreign minister, Hu was accompanied by Taiwan Affairs Office Director Wang Yi and the General Office of CCP Central Committee Director Ling Jihua. Taiwan's attendees included Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp. Chairman Chi Schive, former Taiwan Representative to the United States Stephen S.F. Chen and former Securities and Futures Commission Chairman Chang Chang-pang.
The protocol arrangements were interpreted by observers as mainland China's way of emphasizing that the meeting was "party-to-party," as opposed to "state-to-state."
[Straits]
Radicals threaten India’s global ambitions
By Jo Johnson
Published: November 27 2008 18:59 | Last updated: November 27 2008 22:27
This is not the face that India likes to show the world. The faster it rises up the ranks of the world’s nations and the closer it comes to being a global power, the more India objects to being bogged down in a sub-regional conflict with Pakistan, its rival for the past six decades.
If there is one thing that the Indian elite fears could derail the country’s rise, it is that agents provocateurs acting on behalf of rivals could disrupt its delicate religious and ethnic balance.
But the speed with which India blames Pakistan, or groups operating under the direct or indirect control of Islamabad’s main intelligence agency, worries those who believe that terrorism on Indian soil also has indigenous roots.
The integration of India’s Muslim population into the economic mainstream has strategic importance for the subcontinent and for the west. Unless this underlying susceptibility to terrorism is addressed, India’s path to superpowerdom could be bumpier than almost everyone predicts.
[Communalism]
India’s Suspicion of Pakistan Clouds U.S. Strategy in Region
By JANE PERLEZ
Published: November 27, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The terrorist attacks in Mumbai occurred as India and Pakistan, two big, hostile and nuclear-armed nations, were delicately moving toward improved relations with the encouragement of the United States and in particular the incoming Obama administration.
Those steps could quickly be derailed, with deep consequences for the United States, if India finds Pakistani fingerprints on the well-planned operation. India has raised suspicions. Pakistan has vehemently denied them.
But no matter who turns out to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks, their scale and the choice of international targets will make the agenda of the new American administration harder.
Reconciliation between India and Pakistan has emerged as a basic tenet in the approaches to foreign policy of President-elect Barack Obama, and the new leader of Central Command, Gen. David H. Petraeus. The point is to persuade Pakistan to focus less of its military effort on India, and more on the militants in its lawless tribal regions who are ripping at the soul of Pakistan.
Terrorists' identity remains a mystery
By Mark McDonald and Alan Cowell
Thursday, November 27, 2008
HONG KONG: A day after the terror attacks in Mumbai that killed over 100 people, one question remained as impenetrable as the smoke that still billowed from two of the city's landmark hotels: who carried out the attacks?
Security officials and experts agreed that the assaults represented a marked departure in scope and ambition from other recent terrorist attacks in India, which have singled out local people rather than foreigners and hit single rather than multiple targets.
Christine Fair, senior political scientist and a South Asia expert at the RAND Corporation, was careful to say that the identity of the terrorists could not yet be known. But she insisted the style of the attacks and the targets in Mumbai suggested the militants were likely to be Indian Muslims and not linked to Al Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Taiba, another violent South Asian terrorist group.
"There are a lot of very, very angry Muslims in India," Fair said. "The economic disparities are startling and India has been very slow to publicly embrace its rising Muslim problem. You cannot put lipstick on this pig. This is a major domestic political challenge for India.
"The public political face of India says, 'Our Muslims have not been radicalized.' But the Indian intelligence apparatus knows that's not true. India's Muslim communities are being sucked into the global landscape of Islamist jihad," she said. "Indians will have a strong incentive to link this to Al Qaeda. 'Al Qaeda's in your toilet!' But this is a domestic issue. This is not India's 9/11."
[Communalism] [Global insurgency]
At Least 100 Dead in India Terror Attacks
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: November 26, 2008
MUMBAI, India — Coordinated terrorist attacks struck the heart of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, on Wednesday night, killing dozens in machine-gun and grenade assaults on at least two five-star hotels, the city’s largest train station, a Jewish center, a movie theater and a hospital.
Even by the standards of terrorism in India, which has suffered a rising number of attacks this year, the assaults were particularly brazen in scale and execution. The attackers used boats to reach the urban peninsula where they hit, and their targets were sites popular with tourists.
The Mumbai police said Thursday that the attacks killed at least 101 people and wounded at least 250. Guests who had escaped the hotels told television stations that the attackers were taking hostages, singling out Americans and Britons.
Official Says Sunken 'Pirate' Ship Was Thai Boat
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 26, 2008
Filed at 3:48 a.m. ET
NEW DELHI (AP) -- A pirate ''mother ship'' sunk last week by the Indian navy was actually a Thai fishing trawler seized hours earlier by pirates, a maritime agency said Wednesday, but the Indian navy defended its actions, saying it fired in self-defense.
Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, said one Thai crew member died when the Indian frigate INS Tabar fired on the boat in the Gulf of Aden on Nov. 18.
Fourteen others are missing and a Cambodian sailor was rescued four days later by passing fishermen, he said. The maritime bureau received a report on the apparent mistake late Tuesday from Bangkok-based Sirichai Fisheries, which owned the trawler, the Ekawat Nava5, he said.
''The Indian navy assumed it was a pirate vessel because they may have seen armed pirates on board the boat which had been hijacked earlier,'' Choong said.
India's navy said last week that the INS Tabar, which began patrolling the gulf on Nov. 2, battled a pirate ''mother ship'' on Nov. 18, setting the ship ablaze.
90% of Islets in Chinese Border Rivers 'Belong to N.Korea'
Some 85.5 percent of the 451 islets in the Apnok (or Yalu) and Duman (or Tumen) rivers on the border between North Korea and China properly belong to the North, an academic claims. Prof. Suh Kil-soo of Seokyeong University makes the claim in a study of the border along Mt. Baekdu and the two rivers, which will be released in a seminar of the Koguryo and Balhae History Association at the History Museum of Paichai School Foundation in Seoul on Dec. 8.
Pakistan in trade and arms offer to India
By James Lamont in New Delhi and Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
Published: November 23 2008 22:24 | Last updated: November 23 2008 22:24
Pakistan is prepared to withdraw its first-strike nuclear threat and push to create an economic union with India in an effort to bring peace to south Asia, Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s president, said at the weekend in the warmest overture to his country’s southern neighbour in decades.
His words are one of the strongest expressions yet of a desire to heal the rift between the two countries that has existed since the partition of India in 1947 to create the Muslim majority republic. Both have developed nuclear weapons capabilities and fought conventional wars against one another.
The olive branch comes as Pakistan is close to agreeing a financial rescue package with the International Monetary Fund and as Kashmir, the disputed Muslim-majority Indian state, goes to the polls in state elections.
In India, Controversy Over Hindus' Arrests
Terrorism Case Sets Off Politicking, Protests
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, November 24, 2008; Page A12
MALEGAON, India -- Every morning, dozens of Muslim men gather at a tea shop in this western textile town near the spot where a motorcycle bomb exploded in September during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The bomb killed six people, injured 101 and punctured the walls of the shop, whose clock stands frozen at the exact minute the bomb went off.
The men, slurping hot tea, pass around the newspaper to keep up with the ongoing investigation into the blast, which has led to the arrests of 10 Hindus here in Maharashtra state in recent weeks.
"We have always known that Hindu extremists were behind the blast, but we never thought the government would have the courage to arrest Hindus. The suspicion is always on Muslims," said Ejaz Ahmad, the 32-year-old shop owner, who was injured in the bombing. "Now we feel there is justice."
But in the rest of the country, the arrests of Hindus in a terrorism case and the use of the new tag "Hindu terror" have sparked enormous controversy. The acrimonious political debate and the street demonstrations in support of the accused threaten to paralyze India's concerted response to terrorism. The controversy also points to the growing complexities of combating tit-for-tat terrorism in this predominantly Hindu but officially secular nation.
[Communalism]
India Calling
By Anand Giridharadas
Published: November 22, 2008
VERLA, India
“WHAT are Papa and I doing here?”
These words, instant-messaged by my mother in a suburb of Washington, D.C., whizzed through the deep-ocean cables and came to me in the village where I’m now living, in the country that she left.
It was five years ago that I left America to come live and work in India. Now, in our family and among our Indian-American friends, other children of immigrants are exploring motherland opportunities. As economies convulse in the West and jobs dry up, the idea is spreading virally in émigré homes.
Which raises a heart-stirring question: If our parents left India and trudged westward for us, if they manufactured from scratch a new life there for us, if they slogged, saved, sacrificed to make our lives lighter than theirs, then what does it mean when we choose
[Remigration]
U.S. Opposes Chinese Reactor Sales to Pakistan
Friday, Nov. 21, 2008
The U.S. State Department said this week that a reported plan for China to sell nuclear power reactors to Pakistan would violate international export rules (see GSN, Oct. 24).
(Nov. 21) - The United States this week objected to Chinese plans to build two nuclear reactors in Pakistan near this one at Chashma (Pakistani Atomic Energy Commission photo).
Senior Pakistani officials announced last month that China had agreed to build two additional reactors at Chashma, where Beijing has already built one nuclear power station and is erecting another. The earlier projects were formalized before China joined the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, the body that sets nuclear trade guidelines.
Nuclear Suppliers Group rules bar sales of sensitive nuclear technology and materials to nations, such as Pakistan, that have not joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and do not allow international monitoring of all their nuclear activities. Earlier this year, the group agreed to exempt India from the sales ban, opening the door for New Delhi to purchase civil nuclear technology from the France, Russia, the United States and others (see GSN, Nov. 17).
[Double standards] [Nuclear deal]
At Tibetan exiles forum, it's debate by day, party by night
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
DHARAMSALA, India — Summoned by the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, more than 550 Tibetan exiles from around the globe have descended on this Himalayan hill station this week to debate the future of their homeland, which many see at a crucial juncture.
By day, they gather in intense sessions, devising strategies to challenge China over its firm grip on the Tibetan Plateau, the scene of unprecedented rioting earlier this year.
By night, they flock to coffee shops, restaurants and bars, greeting old friends from afar and new acquaintances, singing Tibetan songs, quaffing Kingfisher beer and making merry.
Tibet may be at a crossroads, but this six-day forum of exiles is turning into an unusual event that seems equal parts structured bull session, a profound lament over Tibet's situation, a celebration of its culture and, well, a party.
[Separatism]
Buying a Sick Horse and Turning It Into a Dead Horse
That’s the basic Chinese take on the idea of a Chinese automaker taking over GM.
The tubes of the Internet have been abuzz concerning a report on the auto industry website
www.allaboutcars.com headlined “Breaking News—Chinese May Buy GM and Chrysler”.
I took interest in this report because it contradicted my take on Chinese interest in GM—
that it was too big and problematic a meal for China to swallow.
I think I'm still on the correct side of this argument.
China and the American Automotive Follies
Liberated by Barack Obama’s election from the full-time job of belaboring the Bush administration, progressive blogger emptywheel has a very interesting and knowledgeable discussion of China’s possible role in a General Motors bankruptcy.
She floats the possibility that GM’s main Chinese partner, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. or SAIC, might scoop up GM brands and technology at a bankruptcy auction and sell cars into the U.S., eventually migrating the production of virtually a full slate of GM vehicles to China, and exploiting and licensing GM’s Volt electric car technology.
Tibet Album
British photography in Central Tibet, 1920-1950
US Power/US Decline and US-China Relations
Wang Jisi Interviewed by Zhao Lingmin
In this interview, Wang Jisi, Dean of International Studies at Beijing University and a leading Chinese specialist on international relations, tackles the question of the end of US hegemony and US-China relations. The interview, conducted prior to the October financial pandemic in the US and globally, and prior to the election of Barack Obama as president, ranges widely over China as a rising power, the United States and changing world dynamics. While rejecting the very premise of a US-China alliance, pointing to reactionary US policies in Israel/Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. Noting US hypocrisy as in its embrace of Saudi Arabia while speaking of human rights, and pointing to fundamental US weaknesses, Wang nevertheless makes the case for US-China cooperation and challenges the view that the US is in ineluctable decline as a global power. ms
[Decline] [Softpower] [China rise]
Landmark cross-strait deals signed
Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and his mainland Chinese counterpart Chen Yunlin inked four historic agreements in Taipei City Nov. 4.
The deals, which are testimony to the ROC government's ongoing efforts to improve relations across the Taiwan Strait, cover direct air links, direct cargo shipping, postal services and food safety. Analysts believe the agreements could potentially inject billions of dollars into the island's economy.
"The meeting signals that the two sides of the strait have established an institutionalized mechanism for dialogue," Chiang said after the signing ceremony. "It has also demonstrated that both sides can negotiate on an equal footing."
[Straits]
Korea's Leading Exports Lose Ground to Competition from China
The number of Korean products leading global markets is declining amid fierce competition from China.
The Korea International Trade Association said on Sunday that, as of 2006, Korea had a total of 58 products ranking first in the global market, according to analysis of UN trade statistics. The number of world-leading Korean products has declined since 2002, when it stood at 65. It was 61 in 2003 and 58 in 2004, and rose to 59 in 2005.
China produces most first-ranking products (1,029), followed by Germany (866), the U.S. (651), Italy (306), and Japan (240). Korea ranked 17th.
[China competition]
Study Abroad Flourishes, With China a Hot Spot
By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: November 17, 2008
Record numbers of American students are studying abroad, with especially strong growth in educational exchanges with China, the annual report by the Institute on International Education found.
The number of Americans studying in China increased by 25 percent, and the number of Chinese students studying at American universities increased by 20 percent last year, according to the report, “Open Doors 2008.”
“Interest in China is growing dramatically, and I think we’ll see even sharper increases in next year’s report,” said Allan E. Goodman, president of the institute. “People used to go to China to study the history and language, and many still do, but with China looming so large in all our futures, there’s been a real shift, and more students go for an understanding of what’s happening economically and politically.”
[China rising]
India reels over Obama's silence
By M K Bhadrakumar
Nov 12, 2008
Diplomatic predicaments can at times be almost laughable. Indian officials were scurrying around like headless chickens because 120 anxious hours had passed and United States president-elect Barack Obama had not yet put a phone call through to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - as he has done to at least nine other heads of state.
The Indians could learn a thing or two from the Kremlin. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev found himself exactly in Manmohan's predicament when by November 8 his Kremlin telephone still had not rung. But 43-year-old Medvedev did a smart thing.
He put a call through to Chicago to the 47-year old president-elect.
The Kremlin thereupon went ahead and publicized the conversation in an upbeat account. A budding controversy was nipped before it could blossom.
Kashmir issue reviving
Young people move real fast. The embarrassment is acute in Delhi since 76-year-old Manmohan committed an incredible gaffe in the runup to the US elections in late September by telling the 65-year-old US President George W Bush that Indians "loved" him - ignoring how fast the American people's equation with their lameduck leader was deteriorating.
Delhi finds it appalling that Obama phoned Pakistani leader Asif Zardari on Saturday and the two leaders reportedly discussed the Kashmir issue. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee promptly reacted, invoking the Simla Accord of 1972 as the cornerstone of India-Pakistan relations, which rules out third-party mediation over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Indian strategists blithely assume that Washington ascribes crucial importance to building up India as a counterweight to China. They estimate India stands to gain from the US's containment strategy towards China. But a containment strategy towards China may be the last thing on Obama's mind. China is a key player in any US effort to rebuild the global financial architecture, and Beijing is behaving like a "stakeholder".
[China India US]
Brisk External Activities of Koguryo
Pyongyang, November 12 (KCNA) -- Koguryo (277 B.C. - 668 A.D.) with a vast territory and strong military strength, conducted wide-range external activities with many neighboring countries.
Koguryo also had versatile diplomatic relations with nomadic tribes in the faraway northwestern area and even with Japanese islands across the sea, through which it materialized its policy demand and had close economic and cultural intercourse with them.
Such historical facts bespeak that Koguryo held a full-fledged position as a powerful nation and had a great international influence in diplomatic relations.
India’s election season: bad for minorities
Meenakshi Ganguly
The democratic process can be a pretext for India's politicians to foment ethnic sentiments for electoral gain, says Meenakshi Ganguly
4 - 11 - 2008
The world's largest democracies are holding great election contests in 2008-09. There are intriguing parallels and contrasts in the way that prominent issues are discussed and managed by the respective political systems in Washington and New Delhi.
An elections is supposed to be the cornerstone of a democracy, the event where its core principles of debate, plurality, tolerance, and free choice are displayed and celebrated. The electoral process in India is increasingly distant from this ideal (see Sumantra Bose, "Uttar Pradesh: India's democratic landslip", 29 May 2007). What it churns out is a lot of ugliness, a poisoning of societies with hate simply in an effort to gain votes.
[Democracy] [Communalism]
US and India forge a strategic partnership with globally disruptive nuclear treaty
By Kranti Kumara and Keith Jones
4 November 2008
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukerjee and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation treaty last month, concluding a three-year drive on the part of their countries’ respective elites to take Indo-US bilateral relations to “a new level.”
The treaty and associated changes in the rules of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) grant India de facto recognition as a nuclear-weapons state and gut the four decade old international nuclear regulatory framework that the US was largely responsible for creating.
Elements in and around the Bush administration have described the Indo-US nuclear treaty as the most important foreign policy initiative of the president’s second term. Some have gone so far as to compare it to Richard Nixon’s playing of the “China card,” which ultimately led to a US-Chinese diplomatic alliance against the USSR and the opening up of China to foreign capital
While India’s geo-political establishment no doubt considers itself much wiser in the ways of the world than its ham-fisted US counterpart, the weight of economic, military and geo-political power rests overwhelming with the US, notwithstanding its historic and quickening decline.
[Nuclear deal] [US India] [China confrontation] [Decline]
Review: A Floating City of Peasants
John Feffer | October 28, 2008
One of the most profound migrations in history is taking place today. Cities are swelling all over the world with the influx of farmers and peasants. But it is in China, the world’s most populous country, that this great migration has the potential to remake geopolitics. The numbers are staggering. There are 182 Chinese cities large enough and connected enough to qualify as international metropolises. Of these, 89 have populations larger than a million (compared to only 37 in the United States). This migration in China will not only affect energy use, climate, and agricultural production. It will inevitably shift global power from West to East as these Chinese cities become the center of finance, politics, and art.
Van Luyn’s book, A Floating City of Peasants, collects many powerful stories. But it also chronicles the gradual shift in Chinese policy toward migrant workers, who have become indispensable to the economic growth of the country. In Tianjin, for example, 1.1 million migrant workers contribute $1.2 billion to the economy of the city. Beijing has begun to address the civic limbo in which most migrants live — by providing resident status and health care — as well as reducing agricultural taxes that have prompted so many to flee the countryside for the city. How China manages its great migration will likely determine its fate in the world order. If Beijing negotiates this path to modernity adroitly, today’s peasants and migrant workers will become tomorrow’s global leaders
Chinese Negotiator Arrives in Taiwan
By EDWARD WONG
Published: November 3, 2008
BEIJING — Mainland China’s top negotiator on Taiwan matters arrived in Taipei on Monday, the highest ranking mainland official to visit the island since the end of the civil war in 1949.
His visit, for five days of talks aimed at reaching agreements on transportation and economic deals, signals a further warming of relations between the two governments
[Straits]
Lenovo Goes Global, but Not Without Strife
By JANE SPENCER and LORETTA CHAO
BEIJING -- As recently as 2005, Lenovo Group Ltd. was a little-known computer maker that sold only in China, sometimes relying on deliverymen on bicycles.
Its acquisition of IBM's personal-computer business catapulted Lenovo onto the world stage: Now about 60% of the company's sales come from outside China, and it is the fourth-biggest computer maker by shipments.
Lenovo has filled its ranks with Westerners from IBM and Dell Inc., opened factories in Mexico and Poland, and gone on an Olympics-led marketing blitz. While Lenovo has fared better than other Chinese companies that have tried to become global players, it has ...
India's growing military power
Barrister Harun Ur Rashid
India is gradually showing signs of military assertiveness as it is becoming an economic power.
India is the second largest populous country (nearly 1.1 billion) in the world and seventh largest in geographical area. It is twenty-three times larger than Bangladesh. There are almost 1,000 people for every square mile of area nationwide, much denser than China. India is likely to overtake China in the 21st century as the world's most populous country.
Under the US-India nuclear deal, it will receive nuclear fuel and technology and will be much more capable to enlarge its nuclear arsenal. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the India's Defense Ministry has earmarked US$ 2 billion annually to build 300 to 400 weapons over the next 5 to 7 years. Currently India has about 50 to 95 nuclear warheads.
Middle-aged Indians remember a time when their country would watch thousands of Indians in jeopardy in a foreign land and know that there was nothing their military could do.
But in 2006, when conflict between Israel and Hezbollah threatened Indian expatriates in Lebanon, four Indian warships happened to be in the Mediterranean. The navy rushed the vessels to Lebanon and brought more than 2,000 people on board, not only Indians, but Sri Lankans, Nepalese and Lebanese eager to escape the fighting.
Chinese diplomats help DPRK farmers in harvest
PYONGYANG, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Diplomats from the Chinese embassy visited a cooperative farm in Pyongyang on Thursday and offered the farmers a helping hand in harvesting.
The diplomats headed by Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming helped farmers threshing rice on the DPRK-China Friendship Thaekam Cooperative Farm located in the northern suburbs of the DPRK capital, and handed over a batch of aid materials.
61 Killed, 350 Hurt In Bombings Across India's Assam State
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 31, 2008; Page A15
NEW DELHI, Oct. 30 -- Eleven bomb blasts ripped through India's northeastern state of Assam on Thursday, killing at least 61 people and leaving more than 350 injured. The serial blasts took place before noon, within a span of 50 minutes.
[Separatism]
Bhopal's Ghosts May Impede New U.S. Nuclear Trade With India
By Viola Gienger and Gopal Ratnam
Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Indian foes of an agreement that allows U.S. companies to sell nuclear-energy supplies to their country are now trying to hinder General Electric Co. and other American businesses from taking advantage of it.
The opponents are turning to the ghosts of Bhopal for help. They are invoking the December 1984 leak of poisonous methyl isocyanate gas at a Union Carbide Corp. factory in that Indian city, which killed 3,800 people, to argue against ratifying a separate accord that would shield U.S. suppliers from liability in the event of a nuclear accident.
``We think it's immoral and unethical for any company or any government to even suggest'' that suppliers of nuclear plants and technology be granted a legal safeguard, said Brinda Prakash Karat, a leader in Parliament from the Communist Party of India (Marxist). ``India has a very bad experience already with a disaster caused by the Union Carbide factory.''
The public resonance that Bhopal still holds in India may add months or years to Indian ratification of the international nuclear-liability treaty. That threatens to make GE and other U.S. suppliers laggards in the race for at least $175 billion that India plans to spend on nuclear energy production in the next 30 years.
Competitors such as Paris-based Areva SA and Russia's Rosatom Corp. are covered by sovereign immunity because they are fully or partially controlled by governments.
[Nuclear deal]
Exporters See Boom in China
Neighboring Country Plans to Stimulate Domestic Demand
By Kim Jae-kyoung
Staff Reporter
Choi Jae-young, 36, a Korean resident in Beijing who headed a Korean conglomerate's Chinese branch over the past four years, recently made a once-in-a-life time decision.
He quit his job and set up Opex Consulting there, a firm specializing in offering consulting services for Koreans investing in China, to capitalize on new opportunities in the event of an economic slowdown there.
His decision may sound implausible as most Koreans believe that a slowdown in China would be another threat to Asia's fourth largest economy. China is currently Korea's largest export destination.
However, Choi countered the argument, saying, ``Ironically, China's slowdown triggered by slowing exports can be a good opportunity for Korea to sidestep the risk of a recession.''
International community 'approves' India's membership in the nuclear club
The 30-year-old nuclear embargo against India, who is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has been conducting nuclear experiments, was lifted last month, allowing India to officially import nuclear technology and atomic fuel. This is the same as the international community approving India's membership in the nuclear club. Without a doubt, this is an "NPT crisis." The result will certainly erode countries' motivation in taking the NPT seriously, as well as inflate the egos of countries such as North Korea and Iran who are suspected of engaging in nuclear activities. As the only country to have ever suffered from a nuclear attack, should Japan not play an active role in sustaining the NPT framework?
[nuclear deal] [NPT]
Father, Son and Holy War
A Film by Anand Patwardhan
Copyright Date: 1994
In the politically polarized world, universal ideals are rare. In India, as in many regions, the vacuum is filled by religious zealousness. Minorities are scapegoats of every calamity as nations subdivide into religious and ethnic zones, each seemingly eager to annihilate the others, or to extinguish itself on the altar of martyrdom.
But why? FATHER, SON AND HOLY WAR explores in two parts the possibility that the psychology of violence against "the other" may lie in male insecurity, itself an inevitable product of the very construction of "manhood."
Anniversary of CPV's Entry into Korean Front Observed
Pyongyang, October 25 (KCNA) -- Leading newspapers today dedicate signed articles to the 58th anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteers' entry into the Korean front.
The party and government of China sent the Chinese People's Volunteers made up of excellent sons and daughters of the Chinese people to the Korean front under the banner of " Resisting America and Aiding Korea, Safeguarding the Home and Defending the Motherland" in the very difficult and grave period for the Korean people, says Rodong Sinmun in a signed article.
It goes on:
After rushing to the Korean front, the fighters of the CPV waged a heroic war of resistance against the aggressors, the common enemy of the two countries, standing in the same trench with the Korean People's Army.
Widespread fallout from India-US pact
By Brad Glosserman and Bates Gill
The United States-India civilian nuclear agreement was signed into law this month after two years of negotiations and bitter debate, yet the deal's final terms have sharply divided arms control and non-proliferation specialists. The focus of this often-emotional debate revolves around a simple question: is the deal a meaningful compromise that protects India's national security interests and the integrity of the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), or does it give Delhi too much power and undermine the NPT? The debate continues with no consensus in sight.
Unfortunately the deal's potentially far greater consequences are garnering far less attention. In particular, little has been said about how this deal is seen in other countries, the precedent it appears to set, and the impact it has on US leadership generally, especially on nonproliferation issues. These are equally critical concerns and, while we are still in early days, they may come back to haunt this agreement.
[Nuclear deal]
In India, Global Crisis Is Not All Bad News
One Industry Sees Opportunities, Lessons
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 26, 2008; Page A22
GURGAON, India -- In the mortgage crisis that has enveloped much of the Western world in recent weeks, Manoj Malhotra's outsourcing company sees an enhanced business opportunity.
As lenders in the United States and Europe move to firm up loans, sharpening quality control and fraud verification, the Gurgaon-based company that Malhotra heads has designed a Web program to help them do just that.
"The loan processing industry needs less of manual intervention and subjectivity and more of technology-based solutions, especially in the current climate," said Malhotra, who launched the program at a mortgage industry conference in San Francisco last week.
A boost for a Chinese automaker
Electric cars and a medium-size automaker in China may soon get a big boost.
According to this article, China’s Geely Motors is in negotiations with British officials over the launch of electric taxis in London next year.
Forming America's Cold War China Policy
steven phillips
Guangqiu Xu . Congress and the U.S.-China Relationship: 1949–1979 . : University of Akron Press , 2007 . 409 pp. Maps, notes, index. (hardcover ).
James Peck . Washington's China: The National Security World, the Cold War, and the Origins of Globalism . : University of Massachusetts Press , 2006 . 333 pp. Notes, index. (softcover ).
The last decade was an active one for scholars of Sino-American relations. China's increasing economic power and international stature spurred interest in the field, new documents from both sides of the Pacific became available, and the recent tribulations in American foreign relations only strengthen the view of Nixon's 1972 trip as a diplomatic triumph. Historians of the 1949–1979 period have successfully outlined the policies and personalities in Washington, Taipei, and Beijing. For example, Nancy Bernkopf Tucker has examined ties between Taipei and Washington, Chen Jian has written on Beijing's foreign policy and Mao Zedong's worldview, Robert Ross and Jiang Changbin have offered the most up-to-date scholarship on U.S.-China diplomacy during the Cold War, and, most recently, Yafeng Xia has written a comprehensive account of official Sino-American contact from Communist victory through rapprochement.1 Further, there exists a mountain of memoirs and biographies of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger as well as detailed accounts of the famous 1972 meetings in Beijing. What most of these works share is a willingness to see the nuance, complexity, and contradictions in Sino-American relations: illustrating the conflict between Americans and Chiang Kai-shek, the Communist Chinese efforts to limit hostility with the United States, or how personal relationships or personalities influenced official policies, for example. Today, the Cold War provides only a general framework for understanding the history of Sino-American relations. It has become an ideal type—a model against which actual policies and attitudes are compared—rather than the sole defining characteristic of the era. That model grew from the early Cold War orthodoxy that shaped much of the scholarship of the 1950s which, in turn, helped spawn a counternarrative—revisionist scholarship of the 1960s and later.2 As the Cold War began to wind down in the 1980s, the history of Sino-American ties moved with the larger currents of diplomatic history into what is broadly defined as postrevisionism, an attempt to reconcile the two earlier Manichean views. Based on the contribution of scholars like those mentioned above and over five decades of shifting methodological approaches, standards and expectations are high for historians of Sino-American relations.
[US China relations] [China card]
Pakistani jibe strikes 'terror'
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's recent statements on India and Kashmir have stirred heated debate in India and Pakistan over whether the two countries might indeed be on course for a radical change in their relations.
In an interview to the Wall Street Journal, Zardari observed that arch-rival India "has never been a threat to Pakistan". What is more, he described militants operating in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir as "terrorists", denying them the honorable tag of "freedom fighters" that they have enjoyed hitherto in Pakistan.
Zardari's comments are a significant shift from the traditional
Pakistani position on India and the armed insurgency in Kashmir. From its birth in 1947, Pakistan has looked on India as an enemy. Successive governments - civilian and military - have described India as a threat to Pakistan's very existence. As for the insurgency in Kashmir, it is widely regarded in Pakistan as a "liberation struggle" led by "freedom fighters".
It is these positions, long-held by the Pakistani establishment and shared by the vast majority of the public, that Zardari negated in the interview.
[US dominance]
India, Pakistan open historic Kashmir trade route
The longtime rivals exchanged goods across the divided territory for the first time in 60 years.
By Mian Ridge | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the October 22, 2008 edition
New Delhi - Trucks piled high with containers of apples, nuts, and honey became symbols of the slow-moving peace process between India and Pakistan when an old trade route across Kashmir reopened Tuesday after 60 years.
The reopening of the route, which runs across the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the Himalayan region, is one of several "confidence-building measures" agreed on as part of a peace pact made by the two nuclear-armed neighbors in 2004.
But passing as it does through hotly disputed Kashmir, the reopening of this route is especially potent. Kashmir, which both countries rule in part but claim in full, constitutes the core of the disagreement between India and Pakistan that has sparked three wars since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947.
State Department Arms Control Board Declares Cold War on China
China, Hans Kristensen, Nuclear Weapons, United States Add comments
After planning the war against Iraq, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz now heads the State Department’s International Security Advisory Board that recommends a Cold War against China.
By Hans M. Kristensen
A report from an advisory board to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recommended that the United States beefs up its nuclear, conventional, and space-based posture in the Pacific to counter China.
The report, which was first described in the Washington Times, portrays China’s military modernization and intentions in highly dramatic terms that appear go beyond the assessments published so far by the Defense Department and the intelligence community.
[China confrontation]
Playing By the Rules? China’s Growing Global Role
Pang Zhongying, Director, Institute of Global Studies, Nankai University
Signs abound of China’s emergence as a significant status quo power in the international order in step with its emergence as a major world economy. In its leading role in the 6-Party talks on North Korea, in its opening to ASEAN and to Africa, in its pivotal role in the Shanghai group of nations, China’s geopolitical reach has expanded. So, too, in its economic and financial reach as China, with Japan, prop up the US dollar through their massive purchase of US securities at a time of financial crisis, and China extends its search for resources globally. In the following overview of six decades, Pang Zhongying speaks to international concerns about the nation’s growing international presence and highlights distinctive features of China’s approach to diplomacy including its prioritization of UN-sanctioned roles as reflected in its growing participation in UN peacekeeping and relief missions, and its criticism of unilateral intervention.
[China rise]
Lesson from China: Get agricultural land price right
19 Oct 2008, 0231 hrs IST, TNN
It is ironic that both India and China are having to grapple, at roughly the same time, with the knotty issue of putting agricultural land to industr
ial or urban use.
India has been beset by a series of protests against the transfer of cultivable land to factory and mining projects. In China, a high-level meeting of the ruling Communist Party discussed sweeping changes last week to allow agricultural land to be used for industrial or non-farming purposes.
India needs serious deliberations of the Chinese sort.
[China India comparison]
Clash of narratives and the bomb
—by Khaled Ahmed
South Asia’s Cold War: Nuclear Weapons and Conflict in Comparative Perspective
By Rajesh M Basrur
Routledge 2008
Pp.171; Price £70
Available at bookstores in Pakistan
Both the states are likely to converge to the identity of market states, which means Pakistan could forget ‘parity prior to war’ and adopt a benignly parasitic role, benefiting from India’s big market
Here is a very readable unravelling of the mystery of Indo-Pak rivalry in the nuclear era, from a teacher in Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. The organising idea is that of the cold war, mark two, after two states have deterred each other with nuclear arsenals. The book therefore studies the vicissitudes of the US-USSR equation, the US-China equation, the China-USSR equation and the latest US-North Korea equation. The conceptual framework is derived from the study of the Cold War behaviour patterns for application to the Indo-Pak conduct of nuclear-backed relations.
Rebuffed by China, Pakistan May Seek I.M.F. Aid
By JANE PERLEZ
October 19, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Asif Ali Zardari returned from China late Friday without a commitment for cash needed to shore up Pakistan’s crumbling economy, leaving him with the politically unpopular prospect of having to ask the International Monetary Fund for help.
Pakistan was seeking the aid from China, an important ally, as it faces the possibility of defaulting on its current account payments.
With the United States and other nations preoccupied by a financial crisis, and Saudi Arabia, another traditional ally, refusing to offer concessions on oil, China was seen as the last port of call before the I.M.F.
China to provide more N-reactors to Pakistan
* Beijing privately agrees to follow ‘step-by-step’ approach to fulfill Pak energy needs: CBS
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: China has privately agreed to follow a ‘step-by-step’ approach to fulfilling Pakistan’s aspiration for an expanded nuclear energy programme, rather than sign an ambitious civil nuclear programme of the kind recently struck between the US and India, a CBS News report published Friday quoted senior Pakistani and Western officials as saying.
According to the report, Western diplomats said China was interested in maintaining a stable relationship with Pakistan for a number of reasons. “China sees its relationship with Pakistan as a way to counter-balance growing US ties with India,” it said.
Another Pakistani official however told CBS News on condition of anonymity China was eager to avoid a ‘direct confrontation’ with the West on its nuclear energy co-operation with Pakistan. “China is not seeking a head-on clash with anyone. It wants to broaden its relations with Pakistan but without the risk of a stiff US reaction,” the official said.
[China strategy]
Cross-strait ties continue to develop
Publication Date:10/16/2008
By Ellen Ko
Chen Yunlin, the Chinese mainland's top Taiwan negotiator, will visit the ROC at the end of October or in early November, according to Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council and mainland China's Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait.
Off-shoring: The Sky is Not Falling. Info from Infosys
Posted by: Steve Hamm on October 10
Infosys reported earnings today and provided yet another piece of solid evidence that the sky is not falling for the Indian outsourcing industry. It beat expectations with a 30 percent rise in quarterly profit. It also cut its forecast slightly for full-year dollar revenue growth because of currency value shifts. That move, of course, prompted investors to dump the stock in droves. But it’s important to distinguish between the performance of these companies and the behavior of investors.
[Offshoring]
The Real Story Behind the U.S.-India Nuclear Deal
By Subrata Ghoshroy, AlterNet
Posted on October 17, 2008, Printed on October 17, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/103313/
At about 2:30 PM on Wednesday, October 8th, President Bush signed into law H.R. 7081, the United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Nonproliferation Enhancement Act, a.k.a. the "U.S.-India nuclear deal." In attendance were Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is credited as the architect of the deal, members of Congress and an array of Indian American supporters. It was the final milestone in a long road that started on July 18, 2005, when President Bush and India's Prime Minster Manmohan Singh announced the deal in a surprise joint statement. It was also a good photo op for a beleaguered president whose legacy will be an ill-conceived war and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
[Nuclear deal]
Pakistan urges accord for non-discriminatory cooperation in N. field
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 (APP): Pakistan has called for evolving an international agreement on universal and non-discriminatory criteria for cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. “Unfair restrictions on the development of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes only serve to strengthen the monopoly of few over nuclear technology and thus aggravate the sense of discrimination and existence of double standards,” Ambassador Zamir Akram, the Pakistani delegate, told the General Assembly’s First Committee, which deals with disarmament and security issues.
“Such discrimination is dangerous for the integrity of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, said Akram, who is Pakistan’s permanent representative to U.N.’s Europeran Offices in Geneva.
“Black market networks owe their existence in part to restrictions on technology transfers also for peaceful purposes. Non-proliferation arrangements have focused on the supply side of the problem while ignoring the demand factor,” he said in a thematic debate on nuclear weapons.
[Proliferation] [Double standards] [Nuclear deal]
China to build 93,000-ton atomic-powered aircraft carrier: source
Vessel to be on par with latest U.S. carrier, according to data
» Decommissioned Russian antisubmarine carrier Kiev that China bought in 2000.
China has been pushing ahead with construction of a mega-sized nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be completed in 2020, according to a Chinese Communist Party's dossier.
U.S., India ink historic civilian nuclear deal
+ - 10:08, October 11, 2008
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and visiting Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee signed the U.S.-India Agreement for Cooperation Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy in Washington Friday.
Under the agreement, American businesses will be allowed to sell nuclear fuel, technology and reactors to India, thus reversing a three-decade ban on atomic trade with the fast-growing nuclear-armed Asian power.
It was believed that the deal highlights a strategic partnership between the two countries not only in nuclear know-how but also in trade, defense cooperation and other areas.
[Nuclear deal]
China cancels military contacts with US in protest
By PAULINE JELINEK and MATTHEW LEE
The Associated Press
Monday, October 6, 2008; 6:38 PM
WASHINGTON -- China has abruptly canceled a series of military and diplomatic contacts with the United States to protest a planned $6.5 billion package of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, American officials told The Associated Press on Monday.
The Chinese action will not stop the country's participation with the United States in international efforts over Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programs, U.S. officials said
[Military balance] [Spin] [China confrontation] [Proliferation]
Arms Deal to Taiwan Riles China
By THOM SHANKER
Published: October 4, 2008
WASHINGTON — An announcement that the United States would sell more than $6 billion in advanced weapons to Taiwan elicited strong reactions from leaders in China on Saturday, with officials in Beijing issuing denunciations and warnings that the weapons deal could worsen relations.
[Arms sales] [China confrontation]
India-US celebrate nuclear deal; China, Pakistan ask questions
Posted by: Sanjeev Miglani October 3rd, 2008
Suppliers Group
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be in New Delhi this weekend to celebrate a hard-fought nuclear deal that to its critics strikes at the heart of the global non-proliferation regime by allowing India access to nuclear technology despite its refusal to sign the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT) and give up a weapons programme.
China and Pakistan are not amused although both stepped aside as they watched an unstoppable Bush administration push the deal through the International Atomic Energy Agency and then the Nuclear Suppliers Group in one of its few foreign policy successes.
A commentary in the state-controlled Beijing Review says Pakistan has reason to worry about the deal and recalls a statement put out by the Pakistan Army last month that warned of negative implications for strategic stability in South Asia. It would have been better if the United States had considered a package approach for both India and Pakistan, which conducted its first nuclear weapon tests two weeks after India, the magazine said, quoting the Pakistan Army statement.
China’s own stand, it said, was that all countries are entitled to make peaceful use of nuclear energy and that bodies like the NSG must address the aspirations of all parties. But it described the India-U.S. deal as a turning point which in the long run would have have a profound impact on international non-proliferation efforts.
“Countries on the nuclear threshold might be tempted by the potential rewards of the Indian approach and pursue their nuclear weapon programs with renewed vigor,” it said. “This new perspective might also affect negotiations over the North Korean and Iranian nuclear issues. ”
[Nuclear deal]
US to go ahead with $6bn Taiwan arms deal
By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Kathrin Hille in Taipei
Published: October 3 2008 17:15 | Last updated: October 4 2008 00:13
The US plans to sell $6.5bn in weapons to Taiwan as part of a long-awaited package intended to boost the island’s ability to defend itself.
The Bush administration on Friday notified Congress of the proposed sale, which includes Patriot missiles, Apache helicopters, submarine-launched Harpoon missiles, Javelin anti-tank missiles and spare parts for F-16 fighter jets.
Taiwan will welcome the package following earlier signs that the US might not proceed with the sales. Admiral Timothy Keating, head of US Pacific Command, ignited controversy earlier this year by saying the US had frozen arms sales to Taiwan.
The move comes as relations between Taipei and Beijing continue to improve under since Ma Ying-jeou assumed office as the new Taiwanese president in May. But the package is significantly less than an earlier $12bn proposal, and does not include Blackhawk helicopters or money to study the possibility of acquiring diesel submarines.
[Arms sales] [China confrontation] [Proliferation] [Double standards][IAEA]
New Delhi jubilant as high-tech ban ends
By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington, Amy Kazmin in New Delhi and Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
Published: October 2 2008 18:15 | Last updated: October 2 2008 18:15
New Delhi on Thursday hailed US approval of a landmark agreement that lifts a decades-old ban on selling nuclear technology as a "vindication" for India.
The US Senate backed the agreement in a 86-13 vote on Wednesday night that came days after House approval. The White House says the nuclear co-operation pact opens a new chapter in relations between the countries, but non-proliferation critics say the agreement undermines global efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
[Nuclear deal]
Nations eye India's vast nuclear market
The US Senate passed a deal Wednesday to let America join Russia and France in supplying India's huge energy needs.
By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the October 3, 2008 edition
New Delhi - With an emphatic vote Wednesday, the US Senate assured that America will take part in India's $100 billion nuclear-energy sweepstakes.
The 86-to-13 vote to resume civilian nuclear trade with India for the first time since 1974 is a signature diplomatic achievement for the Bush administration, cementing ties with a nation seen as a counterweight to China.
But it is also a major piece of business. In 20 years, India aims to increase its nuclear power 10-fold, and will rely on international businesses to do it.
[Nuclear deal] [China confrontation]
Senate Approves Indian Nuclear Deal
By PETER BAKER
Published: October 1, 2008
WASHINGTON — The United States opened a new chapter of cooperation with India on Wednesday night as Congress gave final approval to a breakthrough agreement permitting civilian nuclear trade between the two countries for the first time in three decades.
[Nuclear deal]
Senate Backs Far-Reaching Nuclear Trade Deal With India
Measure Goes to Bush, Giving The President a Rare Victory
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 2, 2008; Page A17
The Senate last night approved a historic agreement that opens up nuclear trade with India for the first time since New Delhi conducted a nuclear test three decades ago, giving the Bush administration a significant foreign policy achievement in its final months.
Senate Backs Far-Reaching Nuclear Trade Deal With India
How the Senate Voted
The bill, which passed 86 to 13, goes to President Bush for his signature, handing the chief executive a rare victory that both advocates and foes say will reverberate for decades. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who conceived of the deal, have pushed hard for it from the earliest weeks of the president's second term.
[Nuclear deal]
China Keeps Car Rules Imposed for Olympics
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 2, 2008; Page A19
BEIJING, Oct. 1 -- The government began taking 30 percent of its cars in the capital off the roads Wednesday in an attempt to make permanent some of the traffic restrictions imposed during the Olympic Games, officials and media reports said.
Don’t want n-weapon state in region, so no backing Iran: PM
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Pranab Dhal Samanta Posted: Sep 30, 2008 at 0257 hrs IST
MARSEILLE, SEPTEMBER 29 A day before India signs its first civil nuclear cooperation agreement with France after the waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group earlier this month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during his interactions today at the India-EU summit here, made it clear that India does not support Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions.
[Double standards]
Senate Nears Vote on Indian Nuclear Deal
By PETER BAKER
Published: October 1, 2008
WASHINGTON — Congress was poised Wednesday to give final approval to an agreement opening civilian nuclear trade with India, reversing a three-decade-old ban and potentially redefining American relations with the world’s largest democracy.
The Senate opened debate and appeared set to approve the deal, one of President Bush’s highest foreign-policy priorities during his remaining time in office. The House passed it last week and, assuming the Senate concurs, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to travel to New Delhi this month to formally sign the agreement.
[Nuclear deal]
Kim Jong Il Sends Message of Greetings to State Leaders of China
Pyongyang, September 30 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, together with Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, and Kim Yong Il, premier of the DPRK Cabinet, today sent a message of greetings to Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, President of the People's Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the PRC, Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress, and Wen Jiabao, Premier of the State Council of the PRC, on the occasion of the 59th anniversary of the founding of the PRC.
Consumers Shun Made-in-China Food Products
By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
The recent melamine scare has made consumers wary of snacks, chocolate, instant coffee and creamers.
Kwon Sang-jin, a 32-year-old office worker in Seoul, has decided to quit drinking instant coffee, shocked by the spreading melamine crisis. He used to habitually drink four cups of instant coffee every day.
``I feel so terrible about the toxic chemical found in instant coffee. I used to drink a lot but now I'm trying to change my habit to drink other kinds of beverages like tea,'' Kwon said.
[Quality] [Boycott]
U.S. pact transforms India's role in nuclear club
Proposed deal with U.S. paves the way for transformation
By Kim Barker | Chicago Tribune correspondent
1:04 AM CDT, September 29, 2008
NEW DELHI — Regardless of whether the U.S. Senate grants its approval in the coming days, a controversial nuclear deal between the United States and India already has delivered what New Delhi considers the most important part.
A decision this month by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, or NSG, to approve India for nuclear trade means that, regardless of final congressional approval, India's role in the nuclear club has been transformed.
For the first time since India successfully tested nuclear weapons in 1974, the country is no longer seen as a nuclear outcast, banned from civilian nuclear trade because of its military program and its refusal to sign non-proliferation treaties.
It means that India can start shopping for uranium and technology for nuclear reactors—and not just in the United States. Because of restrictions that the U.S. may impose, American companies might not benefit from the deal, which could be as much as $150 billion, despite the fact that the Bush administration has been key in pushing it.
[Nuclear deal]
Kim Yong Nam Meets Chinese Delegation
Pyongyang, September 27 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met and had a friendly conversation with the delegation of the China-Korea Friendship Association led by Chairman Wu Donghe at the Mansudae Assembly Hall Saturday.
On hand were Choe Chang Sik, minister of Public Health who is chairman of the Central Committee of the DPRK-China Friendship Association, and Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK.
The head of the delegation said that the friendly relations between the two countries provided by the leaders of the elder generation are steadily developing on good terms under the deep care of Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin and General Secretary Kim Jong Il.
He expressed hope that the Korean people would achieve greater successes in socialist construction under the leadership of Kim Jong Il.
Indian Police Accused Of Using Undue Force On Terror Suspects
Muslims Bear Brunt of Zeal to Solve Bombings
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 29, 2008; Page A13
HYDERABAD, India -- A week after two bombs rocked an amusement park and a restaurant here in September 2007, plainclothes policemen barged into the home of Abdul Raheem, an auto-rickshaw driver. Throwing a black cloth over his face, they shoved him into their vehicle.
"I kept asking them if I had jumped a red light by mistake or parked my auto-rickshaw at the wrong spot. I had no idea they were picking me up for the bomb blasts," said Raheem, 27, a bearded man with a thick mop of oiled hair.
For three days, the police questioned him nonstop: Had he driven the bombers to the scene? Had he heard suspicious conversations among passenger? They beat him with straps made from truck tires, he said, and "tied my ankles . . . and gave me electric shocks all over my body."
In the end, authorities found no evidence to charge him in the bombings but kept him in jail for six months on unrelated allegations of distributing DVDs of the 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat state and possessing "jihadi literature."
One small step for Zhai, one giant leap into the space race for China
David Smith The Observer, Sunday September 28 2008
Article history
Just as the distant beep of Sputnik shook US confidence half a century ago, so China signalled a new space race yesterday when a flag-waving astronaut performed the nation's first spacewalk. 'I'm feeling quite well,' said Zhai Zhigang as he climbed out of the spacecraft. 'I greet the Chinese people and the people of the world.'
The mission commander, wearing a $4.4m Chinese-made suit weighing 120kg (265lb), floated out of the Shenzhou 7 ship's orbital module for about 13 minutes before climbing back inside and closing the hatch behind him. Fellow astronaut Liu Boming also emerged briefly to hand 41-year-old Zhai a Chinese flag that he waved for an exterior camera filming the event. The third crew member, Jing Haipeng, monitored the ship from inside the re-entry module. Broadcast live on state television, the spacewalk was the latest milestone in an ambitious space programme which could one day rival past American and Russian missions in its rapid expansion.
The next goal is to assemble a space station from two Shenzhou orbital modules. The Cold War superpowers have dominated space exploration since the Soviet Union put Sputnik, the first satellite, into orbit in 1957, triggering a competition for national prestige with the United States that led to the Apollo moon landings. The latest show of Chinese strength could hardly have been more symbolic on a weekend when the US faces what has been described as its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
[Decline] [China rise]
Summit Blamed for Rush of Unsafe Chinese Seafood Products to Korea
In the midst of the Chinese food scare, a lawmaker claimed that South Korea opened the door for unsafe Chinese seafood products on a full scale by signing an unfair agreement during last month’s Korea-China summit, MBC reported Saturday.
"The rights of the public’s health safety shouldn’t become a summit present," opposition lawmaker Kang Ki-gab said, adding that an agreement at the summit lowered the import requirements for the Chinese seafood products,
The agreement includes a clause that bans the import of Chinese products contaminated with the toxin chemical malachite green _ if detected twice and more a year. Malachite green is known to cause a significant health risk to humans who eat fish contaminated with it.
[Quality]
House Approves Nuclear Trade Deal With India
By REUTERS
Published: September 27, 2008
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The House of Representatives on Saturday approved an agreement to end the three-decade ban on nuclear trade with India, and Congressional leaders were optimistic about its passage in the Senate.
The agreement passed the House by a 298-117 vote, and the Democrats who control the Senate hoped to bring it to a vote there within days despite the opposition of some in their own party, Congressional aides said.
Congressional approval is the last hurdle to the pact, which the Bush administration believes will secure a strategic partnership with India, the world’s largest democracy; help India meet its rising energy demand; and open up a market worth billions.
[Nuclear deal]
Nuclear Pact With India Gets Approval of House
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 28, 2008; Page A06
The House overwhelmingly gave final approval yesterday to a landmark civil nuclear agreement with India, putting the Bush administration in reach of a substantial foreign policy achievement.
The legislation, which passed 298 to 117, still faces obstacles in the Senate, where it has been approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but several senators have blocked it from coming to the floor for debate. The administration has pressed for final action before Congress adjourns, even though the 2006 bill that gave preliminary approval to the deal called for a much longer period of discussion and debate.
[Nuclear deal]
80% of Processed Korean Food Comes from China
Consumers are growing anxious about the safety of their food in the wake of the announcement that snacks imported from China and sold under Korean labels contain high levels of melamine, a toxic substance that causes kidney failure.
[Quality]
Murdoch and Turner Battle for Indian TV
Media giants know a monster market when they see one. That's why News Corp. and other Western broadcasters are investing in more channels for India
by Nandini Lakshman
Despite years of effort, Rupert Murdoch has made little headway in China. Beijing tightly controls its media industry and has restricted severely the ability of News Corp. (NWS) to operate in the country. No wonder Murdoch is such a big fan of Asia's other giant media market, India. Since 1993, News Corp. has invested $2 billion in India. The company has 13 India-specific channels up and running, offering news, music, movies, and other programming. The media giant's Hindi-language flagship, Star Plus, has been India's leading entertainment channel for years. And Star India accounts for 70% of Star Asia's revenues and 60% of profits.
Taktser Rinpoche: reincarnate lama and brother of the Dalai Lama
(Robert Lackenbach) From The Times September 16, 2008
Thubten Jigme Norbu was the eldest brother of the Dalai Lama. At the age of 3 he was identified as the reincarnation (sic) of a senior Tibetan lama, the Taktser Rinpoche, whose name he was given. Still a child, he was appointed abbot of an important monastery where he came under pressure from the Chinese Nationalists (sic)who had invaded Tibet in 1950.
Norbu eventually escaped and made his way to the US where for a while he acted as a consultant to the CIA which was promoting covert warfare against the Chinese Communist occupiers of Tibet. When that activity subsided in the 1970s, in the wake of Nixon’s rapprochement with China, Norbu taught Tibetan studies at the University of Indiana.
Although he had renounced his monk’s vows, he continued to serve as his brother’s representative in the US, established a Tibetan cultural centre, now known as the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Centre, and continued to agitate against the Chinese occupation of his homeland.
Norbu and his brother could not have been politically more opposite. Norbu (or Taktser Rinpoche — both names are used interchangeably) believed in guerrilla war to rescue Tibet from China. His brother, the Dalai Lama, continues to be so opposed to violence that on occasion he has threatened to renounce his title if violent protests by young Tibetans did not end.
A photograph of the two brothers laughing together, the Dalai Lama in his monk’s robes, his elegantly groomed eldest brother in an expensive suit and tie, seemed to sum up the opposing directions of their political lives. Even where they lived were opposites: the Dalai Lama has spent decades in the heaving Indian city of Dharamsala; his brother lived a comfortable academic life in Bloomington, Indiana.
[Media]
China Launches Shenzhou VII as Space Program Advances
By James Peng and Demian McLean
Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese astronauts launched the country's third manned spaceflight into orbit today, on a mission that includes China's first spacewalk and underscores its ambition to match U.S. goals of reaching the moon by 2020.
The Shenzhou VII, carrying three people, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern Gansu province at 9:10 p.m. Beijing time, said state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Toxic Substance Found in Chinese-Made Korean Snacks
Korea Bans Mozzarella Over Dioxin Scare
Public Worries Prompt Food Industry to Tighten Rules
High Levels of Dioxin Found in Chilean Pork
40 Tons of Chinese Food Products Rejected Since 2006
Two food products imported from China and sold under a Korean label have been found to contain large amounts of melamine.
The Korea Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday said the toxic substance was found in Haitai Confectionary and Foods’ Misarang Custard, which is made by its original equipment manufacturer in China, and in Milk Rusk imported from Hong Kong by J & J International.
[Quality]
India hits bottleneck on way to prosperity
By David Pilling
Published: September 24 2008 20:15 | Last updated: September 24 2008 20:15
If ever there were a symbol of India’s ambitions to become a modern nation, it would surely be the Nano, the tiny car with the even tinier price-tag. A triumph of homegrown engineering, the $2,200 (€1,490, £1,186) Nano encapsulates the dream of millions of Indians groping for a shot at urban prosperity. That process has stalled.
The Nano has run into trouble because of a messy tussle over land with dispossessed farmers. But the struggle to determine whether West Bengal’s paddy fields yield up crops or cars is symbolic of something much bigger: the difficulty India has in emulating the manufacturing-led models of countries that have hauled themselves from poverty.
[Urbanisation]
Land of Gandhi Asserts Itself as Global Military Power
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS
Published: September 21, 2008
MUMBAI, India — The Mumbai, an Indian warship, was slicing through choppy monsoon seas one recent morning when a helicopter swooped in overhead. Commandos slithered down a rope, seizing control of the destroyer.
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Ben Curtis/Associated Press
In Beirut, Lebanon, in July 2006, during Israeli attacks on the strongholds of Hezbollah militants, Indian citizens and others waited to board an Indian Navy warship to escape the fighting.
It was a drill, Indian soldiers taking over an Indian ship. But the purpose was to train them to seize other countries’ ships in distant oceans, a sign of a new military assertiveness for the world’s second-most-populous nation.
India, which gave the world the idea of Gandhian nonviolence, has long derided the force-projecting ways of the great powers. It focused its own military on self-defense against two neighbors, Pakistan and China.
But in recent years, while world attention has focused on China’s military, India has begun to refashion itself as an armed power with global reach: a power willing and able to dispatch troops thousands of miles from the subcontinent to protect its oil shipments and trade routes, to defend its large expatriate population in the Middle East and to shoulder international peacekeeping duties.
[Spin] [Militarisation]
Global Implications of China’s Big Investment in Iraq and Afghanistan
Helena Cobban
This article assesses the significance of China’s recently announced investments in large copper and oil development in Afghanistan and Iraq respectively, with potential significance not only for development and peace in the two war-torn nations, but also for China’s global role and the US-China relationship. With foreign and domestic investment in both nations barely trickling in despite UN, World Bank, NATO and US efforts, the Chinese plans are highly significant.
[Decline] [ODI] [China rise]
In India, 'People's Car' Stirs Popular Ire
Demonstrations Shut Down Tata Motors Plant
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 22, 2008; Page A10
BAJEMELIA, India -- Rickshaw-puller Robin Gosh hoped for a better-paying job when Tata Motors announced plans to build a factory in India's West Bengal state to churn out the world's cheapest car. The $2,500 Nano was hailed as "the People's Car," and people like Gosh were going to help build it.
Gosh, who lives in this village near the Tata factory in the town of Singur, sold his bicycle rickshaw after he landed a job unloading trucks at the 1,000-acre plant, an hour's drive from Kolkata, the state capital.
But in recent weeks, the "people's car" -- a celebrated symbol of a new India making private transportation affordable to ordinary citizens -- has hit a serious pothole: the people's protests.
China Seeks to Calm Fears Amid Dairy Scandal
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: September 20, 2008
BEIJING — China on Saturday sought to calm public anxiety about a nationwide milk safety scandal as officials ordered the removal of all tainted supplies from stores, promised more scrutiny of dairy producers and issued warnings against price gouging. Meanwhile, President Hu Jintao scolded local officials as failing to safeguard the public interest.
The broad response underscores how deeply the dairy crisis has resonated with the Chinese public as well as the political problem the scandal has presented for the government, which only last year promised to revamp the country’s food and drug regulatory system after a string of controversies.
[Quality]
Zardari to visit China, negotiate nuclear deal
Islamabad: Asif Ali Zardari, the President-elect of Pakistan, will visit China next week to negotiate a nuclear deal similar to the one between India and the US, an official said on Monday.
"Pakistan is already in touch with China for the nuclear deal to meet its energy crisis and the talks would start during Zardari's visit," an official said
[Nuclear deal]
Embarrassing revelations on the nuclear deal
Brahma Chellaney
September 03, 2008
The Bush administration, through a gag order on its written responses to Congressional questions, had sought to keep the Indian public in the dark on the larger implications of the nuclear deal, lest the accord run into rougher weather. But now its 26 pages of written answers have been publicly released by a senior United States Congressman.
The administration's January 2008 letter to the House Foreign Affairs Committee -- made public by Representative Howard L Berman on Tuesday -- bring out the following:
[Nuclear deal]
N-deal to create thousands of jobs in US
9 Sep, 2008, 0334 hrs IST, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: The US is looking at reviving its flagging nuclear power industry and generating thousands of jobs through the nuclear deal. In its communication to the US Congress, the state department had talked about major opportunities from India’s plans to import at least eight 1,000 mw power reactors by 2012.
Nothing prohibits India from carrying out N-tests: Sibal
Chennai (PTI): The government on Monday said there is nothing in the waiver granted by Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) that stops India from carrying out nuclear tests in future.
"The right to test is sovereign. Nobody can take it away from us. There is nothing in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) (waiver) that prohibits" India, Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters on the sidelines of the Golden Jubilee celebration of IIT, Madras, referring to the allegations by the BJP and Left parties.
Asked for his reaction to the reported remarks by US President George Bush that India would not go for nuclear tests, he said "we are not guided by the statements made by people around the world".
[Nuclear deal]
Risking Armageddon for Cold, Hard Cash
By Mira Kamdar
Sunday, September 7, 2008; Page B03
While everyone has been abuzz about Georgia, the Beijing Olympics and Sarah Palin, perhaps the most important development in the world has been unfolding with almost no attention. India and the United States, along with deep-pocketed corporations, have been steadily pushing along a lucrative and dangerous new nuclear pact, the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement. Both governments have been working at a fever pitch to get the pact approved by the 45-country Nuclear Suppliers Group, which governs the world's trade in nuclear materials, and before Congress for a final vote before it adjourns this month.
[Nuclear deal]
India conveys unhappiness to China over its role in NSG
Monday, 08 September , 2008, 23:47
New Delhi: India on Monday conveyed to China its unhappiness over the latter's move to block the NSG waiver but Beijing insisted that it played a "constructive" role at the 45-nation grouping's meeting in Vienna last week.
The Indian sentiments were conveyed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee during his talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jeichi here.
Sources said the Indian side raised the issue of the role played by China at the NSG meeting.
[Nuclear deal]
Top-level China, India talks amid nuclear deal tension
Sep 8, 2008
NEW DELHI (AFP) — Asian giants India and China held high-level talks on Monday amid tension over Beijing's purported reluctance to back New Delhi's civilian nuclear ambitions.
India has criticised Beijing for being unwilling to support a waiver that would enable New Delhi to trade with the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG), which controls global atomic commerce, without signing non-proliferation pacts.
The NSG exemption, approved Saturday, is key for energy-hungry India to buy nuclear fuel, technology and reactors to power its economy.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who arrived in India Sunday, met his counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
[Nuclear deal]
China’s urbanization means rich rewards for business
BusinessWeek
By Diana Farrell
September 12, 2008
By 2030, 1 billion consumers will live in China's cities. Chinese and global companies are well aware of the huge size and potential of this emerging urban market. But businesses should shift their sights from a panoramic view of the opportunity to a close-up of the dynamics of urbanization. To be successful, they need to keep pace with the rapidly changing managerial strategies that city leaders are employing as their cities expand.
India won’t wait for 123 to sign deals with France, Russia
Siddharth Varadarajan
Riders, amendments will jeopardise nuclear agreement with U.S.
New Delhi: Despite Washington’s expectation that India will wait for Congressional approval of the ‘123 agreement’ on bilateral nuclear cooperation before concluding deals with other suppliers, the government has decided to sign a landmark nuclear framework agreement with France during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Paris later this month.
[Nuclear deal]
Danger in South Asia
Conn Hallinan | September 10, 2008
If most Americans think Iran and Georgia are the two most volatile flashpoints in the world, one can hardly blame them. The possibility that the Bush administration might strike at Tehran's nuclear facilities has been hinted about for the past two years, and the White House's pronouncements on Russia seem like Cold War déjà vu.
But accelerating tensions between India and Pakistan, coupled with Washington's increasing focus on Afghanistan, might just make South Asia the most dangerous place in the world right now, a region where entirely too many people are thinking the unthinkable.
NSG clearance: A pat on India 's back
After a hard diplomatic struggle, the Nuclear Suppliers Group reportedly gave a clean waiver to India to the full satisfaction of the Manmohan Singh Government. The opponents of the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation initiative, however, continued to find fault with the outcome of the NSG deliberations.
The main point of contention at Vienna among the NSG members was, of course, related to a possible nuclear test by India in the future. The group of six, consisting of Austria , New Zealand , the Netherlands , Switzerland , Ireland and Norway wanted strict conditionality in the waiver provisions to prevent any further nuclear test by India .
It was actually not easy for either India or the United States to convince these countries to give a clean waiver to India and accept the draft prepared by the US in consultation with India . Austria and Switzerland , for instance, are industrially developed countries which have traditionally followed a policy of neutrality even during the prolonged Cold War. They are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization nor are they great economic partners of the United States.
The Netherlands is a NATO member, yet a promoter of strict non-proliferation and Amsterdam decided to side with the minority of holdout countries opposing the US draft. Ireland is a close trade and investment partner of the United States . American investment in Ireland is more in dollar terms than India , China , Russia and Brazil combined. It was still not easy for the US to use its leverage until the last moment. Norway has minimal stake in India . It is not an energy starving nation and hardly realizes the energy requirements of India .
New Zealand was the real tough nut to crack.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT] [US dominance]
China Affirms Commitment to N.Korean Regime
Chinese Ambassador to North Korea Liu Xiaoming last Friday stressed that China and North Korea will continue to cooperate closely no matter how international and regional political situation changes. Liu spoke in front of some 500 people including students, academics and Chinese diplomats at Pyongyang Foreign Language University, according to the homepage of the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang on Wednesday.
China Widens Milk Probe as 3rd Baby Dies, Cases Mount
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 18, 2008; Page A13
SHANGHAI, Sept. 17 -- A third infant died and the number of sick grew fivefold to more than 6,200 as China's investigation into contaminated baby formula widened to include other dairy products made by two dozen companies and sold around the world.
Supermarkets in Hong Kong pulled ice cream imported from the mainland that had traces of the chemical melamine off their shelves. Taiwan issued an across-the-board ban on dairy products from Chinese companies involved in the scandal. Chinese exporters scrambled to test samples of milk powder sent to Bangladesh, Yemen and Burma.
An inspection this week of dairy companies found that milk powder from at least 22, or one-fifth of all producers, contained melamine, renewing fears that the overhaul of the food safety system last year after a string of recalls was inadequate.
Health Minister Chen Zhu said Wednesday that the government has dispatched 5,000 inspectors to the country's dairy producers and that it would for the first time mandate checks for toxic substances.
'06 Blueprint Leak Intensifies Concerns Over U.S.-India Deal
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 18, 2008; Page A17
In January 2006, an Indian government agency purchased newspaper ads seeking help in building an obscure piece of metal machinery. The details of the project, available to bidders, were laid out in a series of drawings that jolted nuclear weapons experts who discovered them that spring.
The blueprints depicted the inner workings of a centrifuge, a machine used to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs. In most Western countries, such drawings would be considered secret, but the Indian diagrams were available for a nominal bidding fee, said David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector. He said he acquired the drawings to prove a point.
"We got them for about $10," said Albright, who called the incident a "serious leak of sensitive nuclear information."
[Nuclear deal]
FDA Bans Imports of 28 Indian-Made Drugs
Manufacturing Lapses Cited at 2 Plants
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 17, 2008; Page A03
The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it was halting importation of 28 drugs made by the giant Indian generic drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories because of manufacturing deficiencies at two of the company's plants.
Douglas Throckmorton, a physician with the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said there was "no evidence of harm to consumers" from drugs made at the Dewas and Paonta Sahib plants, both in India. He called the import ban "a preventive action."
ADB sees sharp slowdown in Indian economy
By Sundeep Tucker in Hong Kong
Published: September 16 2008 02:50 | Last updated: September 16 2008 02:50
India’s economy will experience a marked slowdown in the 2008 and 2009 financial years, ending its run of five consecutive years of very high growth, according to the Asian Development Bank.
A study released by the ADB on Tuesday predicts that India’s growth rate will decrease to 7.4 per cent in the current financial year, and decelerate further to 7 per cent in financial year 2009.
By contrast, the ADB forecast that economic growth in China would moderate in 2008 and 2009 but remain among the world’s highest.
The study forecasts growth in China to fall to 10 per cent this year from 11.9 per cent in 2007. It also predicts growth to ease to 9.5 per cent in 2009 on the back of a reduced trade surplus and slower growth in investment as a result of the global economic downturn.
[China India comparison]
Tainted Chinese baby formula raises new safety concerns
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
BEIJING — A scandal over tainted infant formula spread Monday as authorities acknowledged that as many as 10,000 babies may have ingested milk powder laced with the same chemical found in contaminated pet-food exports last year that caused scores of U.S. animals to die.
The admission cast a cloud over China's dairy industry, and New Zealand's prime minister accused China of covering up the contamination until she blew the whistle.
[IJV]
Forge Closer Ties With China: Senior N.K. Defector
Hwang Jang-yup, a former secretary of the North Korean Worker's Party who fled to the South in 1997, reportedly said on Tuesday if Seoul had a free trade agreement with Beijing, China would not recklessly interfere if North Korea collapses.
US Arm Twisting Wins India a Nuclear Waiver: Blow to Non-Proliferation
Praful Bidwai
The special waiver granted to India by the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) from its nuclear trade rules is being seen as a massive setback to the cause of global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
The NSG's waiver will allow India to resume nuclear commerce with the rest of the world with very few restrictions although India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has refused to accede to any other agreement for preventing the spread of, reducing the numbers of, or abolishing nuclear weapons.
NSG member countries in grey
The 45-nation conglomerate, a private arrangement set up after India's first nuclear weapons explosion in 1974, turned a full circle at its special meeting in Vienna, on the weekend, the second one in a fortnight, held at the behest of the United States.
[NPT] [Nuclear deal] [US Dominance]
Former US Ambassador Hails End of India's Nuclear Isolation
By Steve Herman
New Delhi
12 September 2008
A veteran American figure in the U.S.-India relationship is predicting the civil nuclear agreement between the two countries will quickly open the door to closer trade ties, but he warns that talk of a strategic alliance is premature. VOA correspondent Steve Herman reports from New Delhi.
Frank Wisner, a former U.S. ambassador to India, told business leaders and diplomats here Friday he expects a quick, sharp debate in Congress on the civil nuclear deal between Washington and New Delhi.
He said U.S. lawmakers are anxious to settle business so they can campaign for re-election. He said they also face a deadline to deal with the issue before Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits the White House in less than two weeks.
[Nuclear deal]
Indo-US deal will boost N-race: Pak scientist
14 Sep 2008, 0419 hrs IST, Srinivas Laxman ,TNN
MUMBAI: As India inches closer to sealing a civilian nuclear deal with the US, a top nuclear scientist from Pakistan has expressed fears that the nuke pact will encourage worldwide proliferation of nuclear weapons.
In an e-mail interview with TOI , Pervez Hoodbhoy, a well-known Pakistani scientist who heads the department of physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, said: "The speed at which nuclear weapons spread internationally will surely increase. The deal has struck yet another nail into the coffin of non-proliferation."
[NPT] [Nuclear deal]
World Nuclear Trade Group Agrees to Restrict Sales to India
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 12, 2008; Page A10
A 45-nation group that governs trade in nuclear equipment and materials privately agreed last weekend that none of its members plans to sell sensitive technologies to India, according to sources familiar with the discussion. The agreement undercuts one of the Indian government's key rationales for seeking a civilian nuclear deal with the United States -- that it would open the door for "full civil nuclear cooperation" with the rest of the world.
[Nuclear deal]
Wilbur Ross Tries India
He now owns textile and auto parts plants worldwide—and has $300 million to spend in India
by Nanette Byrnes and Nandini Lakshman
Ross' Mumbai team is scouting for distressed assets in a range of industries Ethan Hill
India has been a slog for Wilbur L. Ross Jr. The New York investor, who likes to buy downtrodden assets and then cut away every inch of fat to rehabilitate them, opened an office in Mumbai two years ago to hunt for deals. But with the country's economy expanding fast and the Bombay Stock Exchange soaring, few were interested in selling at the kinds of prices Ross was willing to pay. "We were bidding, but losing, losing, losing," Ross says, while rivals "were paying very big prices."
[FDI]
Christians Face Hindus' Wrath
Violence in Indian State Tied to Conversions, Economic Strains
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 15, 2008; Page A16
GHUMUSAR UDAYAGIRI, India -- Babita Nayak was cooking lunch for her pregnant sister when a mob of Hindu extremists wielding swords, hammers and long sticks rampaged through their village, chanting "India is for Hindus! Convert or leave!"
The men, wearing saffron headbands, ransacked dozens of huts, searching for cash and looting bicycles and livestock. They torched the village church, leaving behind burned Bibles in the local Kui language and torn-down posters of Jesus. "Christianity is a foreign religion," they shouted over bullhorns, according to eyewitness and police reports.
Lunch with the FT: Lakshmi Mittal
By Peter Marsh
Published: September 13 2008 00:05 | Last updated: September 13 2008 03:23
It is a scene that stirs the imagination. A few months ago, Lakshmi Mittal invited to dinner at his palatial home – a neo-Palladian mansion in Kensington – the full playing squad of Queen’s Park Rangers football club, of which Mittal became a part-owner last year. "We had 50 or 60 people at home – the team members and their wives or guests," Mittal tells me. "They were very happy that they are respected, they are encouraged. I told them, ‘We are not going to just spend millions and millions to buy top-notch players. We are going to be very selective and encourage teamwork.’"
Details of Mittal’s effort to boost morale at QPR – a far from glamorous club that is in the UK’s second-tier league – emerge from a relaxed lunch with the Indian metals magnate in London. This is an event I had been trying to arrange since 2005. Although I have interviewed the billionaire main owner of ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel company, on numerous occasions, this is only the second time I have shared a meal with the man, who guards his privacy and is famously reluctant to open up to journalists.
As the conversation is getting a little threadbare, I feel I have to try another tack. Does Mittal feel that being Indian might have helped him in his career, particularly through the apparent ability of many people from India to get on well with those from different backgrounds? This appears to strike a chord. "India itself is a place of so many cultures and so many different languages and classes. From north to south you can see a big difference in terms of education, standard of living, that definitely helped. You become much more open to working with different cultures. In ArcelorMittal it was very important for me to convey that we have no taboos of nationalities or culture. We respect talent and skills."
Five bombs hit New Delhi
By James Lamont in New Delhi and Joe Leahy in Mumbai
Published: September 13 2008 14:44 | Last updated: September 13 2008 18:38
Multiple bomb blasts ripped through some of Delhi’s best known shopping areas Saturday night, creating chaos across India’s capital.
The latest attack comes as the US Congress is considering the approval of the US-India civil nuclear deal and days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits Washington.
[Nuclear deal]
Establishing true strategic relations with China
[Editorial]
The Sino-Korean summit began in Seoul yesterday, the third since President Lee Myung-bak was inaugurated in February. Chinese President Hu Jintao chose Korea as his first foreign destination the day after the Beijing Olympics came to an end. The day before yesterday, August 23, was the sixteenth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. This summit is rich in symbolic significance.
China Widens Milk Powder Inquiry to Dairy Farms
By REUTERS
Published: September 14, 2008
Filed at 4:22 a.m. ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's investigation of the tainted milk powder that sickened hundreds of babies widened to its dairy-producing regions on Sunday, as officials attempted to track down the source of melamine in the milk.
One baby died and over 400 developed kidney problems after drinking formula made from milk powder sold by Sanlu Group, one of China's largest milk powder producers that is partly owned by New Zealand's Fonterra Co-operative Group.
[IJV]
Atomic Club Removes Ban on Trade With India
By HEATHER TIMMONS
Published: September 6, 2008
NEW DELHI — The 45 nations that supply nuclear material and technology worldwide removed a major obstacle on Saturday to the passage of a landmark nuclear deal between the United States and India.
The organization, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, agreed to lift a ban on nuclear trade with India after three days of acrimonious talks in Vienna, overcoming opposition from countries fearful that it could set a dangerous precedent. India has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT] [US dominance]
45-nation group OKs landmark US-India nuke deal
By WILLIAM J. KOLE
The Associated Press
Saturday, September 6, 2008; 1:46 PM
VIENNA, Austria -- The U.S. gained key international backing Saturday for a bitterly contested plan to sell peaceful nuclear technology to India _ a South Asia powerhouse that has tested atomic weapons but has refused to sign global nonproliferation accords.
Washington said the landmark deal, which still needs U.S. congressional approval, will place India's nuclear program under closer scrutiny. But detractors warned it could set a dangerous precedent in efforts to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction.
"By establishing a 'good guys' and 'bad guys' set of rules, the decision will make it far harder to curb the South Asian nuclear and missile arms race," said Daryl Kimball, who heads the Washington-based Arms Control Association. Kimball said the deal could undermine efforts to contain the Iranians and North Koreans.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT] [Double standards] [US dominance]
Anti-Korean sentiment spreads through China
The charm of the Korean wave has given way to a country whose need for Korea has diminished
Some 10 Korean businessmen in China met in a Beijing restaurant on August 23, the day before the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. The topic was the “anti-Korean sentiment” shown by Chinese fans during the Olympics. One Samsung employee said it would not surprise him if the Chinese were to launch a boycott of Korean goods soon.
Chinese fans expressed varying degrees of anti-Korean sentiment throughout the Olympics. They booed Korean athletes, and cheered opposing teams, regardless of whether the opposing team was the United States, Europe or even Japan. The Maginot Line of Chinese nationalism -- in sporting events, you root for the underdog unless it is Japan -- has fallen.
China-Taiwan Relations: the election of President Ma Ying-jeou
by Bruce Jacobs, Professor of Asian Languages and Studies, Monash University, Bruce.Jacobs@arts.Monash.edu.au, offers a glimpse into one part of Chinese history that received little attention during the Olympic opening ceremony
Chinese claims to Taiwan are very recent. In his famous 16 July 1936 interview with Edgar Snow, Chairman Mao Zedong clearly stated that Taiwan should be independent (Snow 1961:96). A recent study by Alan Wachman (2007) demonstrates that neither the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) nor the Chinese Communist Party claimed Taiwan as a part of China until 1942.
[Straits]
Land and freedom
Kashmir is in crisis: the region's Muslims are mounting huge non-violent protests against the Indian government's rule. But, asks Arundhati Roy, what would independence for the territory mean for its people?Arundhati Roy The Guardian, Friday August 22 2008 Article history
A Kashmiri Muslim shows a victory sign during a march in Srinagar, India. Photograph: Dar Yasin/AP
For the past 60 days or so, since about the end of June, the people of Kashmir have been free. Free in the most profound sense. They have shrugged off the terror of living their lives in the gun-sights of half a million heavily armed soldiers, in the most densely militarised zone in the world.
[Separatism]
Nuclear group delays decision on India trade ban
By VERONIKA OLEKSYN – 11 hours ago
23 August
VIENNA, Austria (AP) — The global body that governs the legal trade in nuclear materials postponed a decision Friday on whether to give New Delhi access to nuclear fuel and technology — a blow to a landmark deal between Washington and New Delhi.
The Nuclear Suppliers Group's approval of an exemption to its rules is essential for finalizing the civil nuclear cooperation deal. The pact would reverse more than three decades of U.S. policy by allowing the sale of nuclear materials to India, a country that has not signed international nonproliferation accords — and has tested nuclear weapons.
The 45-nation suppliers group said in a statement Friday that it will meet again soon to continue its deliberations on an agreement.
US pressures NZ on India nuclear pact
By MICHAEL FIELD - Fairfax Media | Saturday, 23 August 2008
One of Washington's top foreign policy officials said today he had renewed the pressure on New Zealand to approve a nuclear pact between India and the United States.
On Friday New Zealand diplomats played a major role inside a secretive 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) which has to approve the deal by consensus.
New Zealand is holding out demanding that India sign both the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear Testing Ban.
India wants a waiver from both. Prime Minister Helen Clark said New Zealand as a nuclear free nation wants the conditions.
In Auckland today the a US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Glyn Davies, confirmed he delivered a message to the government here asking again for New Zealand support.
[NPT] [US dominance] [Nuclear deal]
India at 61: here's looking at you, kid!
Antara Dev Sen
"While we focus squarely on the sparkling economic giant, the cultural superstar and regional superpower, in the dark margins of our spectacular new India, our problems continue to fester and spill over." Antara Dev Sen reports on a dark period in India's democracy. 19 - 08 - 2008
"Even God will not be able to save this country!" fumed the supreme court of India days before the nation turned sixty-one on 15 August 2008. A sentiment that millions of Indians would spring to agree with. Like citizens of other healthy democracies, Indians have been persistently critical of the establishment, the rebels and everything in between. The rapid changes that the ancient culture has seen since the economic liberalisation of the 1990s have also exacerbated this urge to lament, even among the devoted who worship the new India, the emerging superpower.
Yes, we were all mortified by what happened in parliament on 22 July 2008. But it was only a preposterously crude performance to highlight something we have known for ages: that there is corruption in politics.
[Nuclear deal] [Corruption]
NZ wants conditions written into nuclear agreement
Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Phil Goff says New Zealand's concerns over a nuclear power agreement between India and the United States can be met by having conditions written into it.
The agreement will allow the US to supply India with nuclear material and technology for civilian use.
Before it can go ahead, it requires the agreement of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), of which New Zealand is a member.
[Nuclear deal]
Experts ask NSG to reject India-specific exemptions proposal
Washington (PTI): Non-proliferation specialists and non-government organisations have asked the Foreign Ministers of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to reject the US proposal to exempt India from long-standing global nuclear trade standards.
Over 150 non-proliferation specialists and NGOs, from around two-dozen countries, in letter to the Foreign Ministers of the NSG said: "India's commitments under the current terms of the proposed arrangement do not justify making far-reaching exceptions to international non-proliferation rules and norms."
[Nuclear deal]
Don’t Loosen Nuclear Rules for India
By EDWARD J. MARKEY and ELLEN O. TAUSCHER
Published: August 19, 2008
Washington
IN the next day or so, an obscure organization will meet to decide the fate of an Indian nuclear deal that threatens to rapidly accelerate New Delhi’s arms race with Pakistan — a rivalry made all the more precarious by the resignation on Tuesday of the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf.
Nonetheless, President Bush is lobbying the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which governs international nuclear commerce, to waive its most crucial rules in order to allow the trade of reactors, fuel and technology to India. If the president gets his way, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — for 50 years, the bulwark against the spread of nuclear weapons — would be shredded and India’s yearly nuclear weapons production capability would likely increase from 7 bombs to 40 or 50.
If the group accedes to President Bush’s dangerous request, countries such as Iran and North Korea would certainly use the precedent to their advantage.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT] [Double standards]
12 Killed In Clash At Protest In Kashmir
Indian Forces Open Fire On Crowds; Tensions Rise
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 13, 2008; Page A06
NEW DELHI, Aug. 12 -- At least 12 people were killed and more than 100 were injured Tuesday when Indian security forces fired into crowds of protesters, the latest escalation of violence stemming from a land dispute in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir.
Rising sectarian tensions between Kashmir's Muslim and Hindu populations have brought six weeks of street protests, blockades and renewed calls for independence for Kashmir, a Himalayan region wedged between India and Pakistan.
[Separatism] [Media] [Double standards]
Tesco breaks into Indian grocery market
By Amanda Vermeulen
Published: August 12 2008 08:51 | Last updated: August 12 2008 08:51
Tesco, the UK’s largest food chain, has clinched a deal to break into India’s grocery market, with plans to invest £60m over the next two years to set up a wholesale cash-and-carry business.
The wholesale outlets will be based initially in Mumbai, and will provide a range of fresh food, groceries and non-food products to retailers, small shops and restaurants, sourcing supplies from local farmers.
India has long been a key market for a number of the world’s big food chains, as grocery purchases account for nearly half consumer spending, compared with about 5 per cent in more developed markets.
Lee, Hu to Work Closely on N.Korean Nuke Issue
President Lee Myung-bak and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on Saturday agreed to work closely together in ongoing efforts to denuclearize North Korea through six-party talks.
Lenovo in Massive Olympics Marketing Blitz
Chinese IT company Lenovo opened a public relations hall inside Beijing Olympic Park on July 31. Lenovo chairman Yang Yuanqing met Chinese and foreign journalists after the opening ceremony.
Four years ago, Lenovo signed a US$50 million contract with the International Olympic Committee to sponsor the Olympics -- a first for a Chinese enterprise. At that time, Lenovo's annual sales were a little less than $3 billion. Chinese people were concerned about the deal, calling it "unreasonable gambling." But Yang said, "Samsung has grown from a South Korean home appliance maker to a top-class global brand through Olympic marketing, hasn't it? Olympic marketing is a prerequisite for us to become a global brand."
Using the Beijing Olympics to gain momentum, Lenovo is greatly benefiting from enhanced global brand recognition. With strong sales and high profits over the past three years, Lenovo leapt into the Fortune Global 500 club for the first time this year.
[Brand] [IM]
China to overtake US as largest manufacturer
By Peter Marsh in London
Published: August 10 2008 22:37 | Last updated: August 10 2008 22:37
China is set to overtake the US next year as the world’s largest producer of manufactured goods, four years earlier than expected, as a result of the rapidly weakening US economy.
The great leap is revealed in forecasts for the Financial Times by Global Insight, a US economics consultancy. According to the estimates, next year China will account for 17 per cent of manufacturing value-added output of $11,783bn and the US will make 16 per cent.
Last year the US was still easily in the top slot and accounted for a fifth of the total. China was second with 13.2 per cent.
[China competition] [Decline]
India to join Air Force training exercises in Nev.
By OSKAR GARCIA
The Associated Press
Monday, August 11, 2008; 3:31 AM
LAS VEGAS -- India's military pilots are expected to participate for the first time in Air Force training exercises above the Nevada desert, marking another step in steadily improving U.S. relations with the Asian subcontinent nation since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.
South Korean and French pilots will also take part in the combat exercises that begin Monday and will put about 65 airplanes in the skies over two weeks, Air Force officials said.
"This particular Air Force exercise is important because India is included among some very important allies," said Christine Fair, a South Asia specialist at the RAND Corp., a nonprofit think tank. "This is definitely an extension of an arc that has been mapped out since 2000, and it really signifies that what India and the United States have is a strategic relationship."
The Indian and U.S. militaries had little interaction during the Cold War, when India was more closely aligned to the Soviet Union and the United States was seen as an ally of Pakistan, India's neighbor and rival.
But relations have improved, with increasing political, economic and military ties. The Sept. 11 attacks in the United States and the subsequent fight against terrorism brought the two sides even closer.
Military ties have expanded rapidly since then, with a series of joint exercises in the air, on land and at sea. Analysts believe that the U.S. is eager to use India as a counterbalance to China in the region.
[US China India] [China confrontation]
What Happened to the Women?
The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was so magnificently awe-inspiring as to prompt
the NBC anchors to declare that, if there were a trophy for the opening ceremonies, then it
must be retired. Vancouver and London certainly have their work cut out for them.
Yet as I watched a string of stunning performances of Chinese men—banging on brass drums,
doing quasi-qigong dance, executing a shanshui painting with their bodies while dancing on
the world’s largest LCD screen, etc., etc., all capped by the 7’6”-tall flag bearer Yao
Ming—I wondered, where did China’s 640 million women go?
Big and Small Nation(alisms): A view from Aotearoa-New Zealand
8/09/2008
This is the fourth installment in our series of views of the Olympic Games from around the
world. Here, Paola Voci, a senior lecturer in the Chinese Language Programme at the
University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, reflects on her mixed national affiliations,
and how they affected her viewing of the opening ceremonies.
The Business of the Beijing Games
For Chinese companies seeking to build up their brands, will the Olympics be a watershed moment or a wasted opportunity?
[Video]
Another territorial dispute for Seoul?
Beijing classifies the Ieodo reef as Chinese territory on its Web site
August 09, 2008
Seoul said it would urge Beijing to revise its latest claim to Ieodo, a remote underwater reef about 149 kilometers (92.5 miles) from the southwest coast of Korea, on the Web site of its government agency.
The move came after China’s National Marine Data and Information Service said on its Oceanic Information Network Web site as of Dec. 24 last year that Ieodo, about 245 kilometers away from China, is “Chinese territory.”
The revelation, which local television station KBS brought to light in Korea on Thursday night, stirred a concern that Seoul may have to deal with two territorial disputes, with both Tokyo and Beijing.
Beijing Lights Up Olympic Dream
By Sunny Lee
Korea Times Correspondent
BEIJING _ At long last, the world saw it all. The opening ceremony of the much anticipated Beijing Olympics.
All the well-kept secrets of the special night were revealed, including the spectacular countdown by 2,008 performers, the flying angels, men in space travel suits, children singing "Sing to Our Homeland," and the solemn rise of the Chinese national flag in front of more than 80 heads of the states from all corners of the world, including President Lee Myung-bak.
There was the unmistakable display of creativity by the ceremony director Zhang Yimou, who ingenuously used the huge 70-meter scroll on the ground as the screen, filled with special effects. To celebrate the special occasion, thousands of soldiers from the ancient Qin Dynasty were also resurrected from their two-thousand-year rest.
The immense human mass-generated waves formed the character "he" (harmony) to reflect the Olympic spirit.
The Beijing Olympic opening ceremony will likely remain as the biggest international event this year, with nearly 4 billion people around the world are estimated to have seen it.
China’s Leaders Try to Impress and Reassure World
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: August 8, 2008
BEIJING — An ecstatic China finally got its Olympic moment on Friday night. And if the astonishing opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games lavished grand tribute on Chinese civilization and sought to stir an ancient nation’s pride, there was also a message for an uncertain outside world: Do not worry. We mean no harm.
Usually, that message is delivered by the dour-faced leaders of the ruling Communist Party, who dutifully, if sometimes unconvincingly, regurgitate the phrase “harmonious society” coined by President Hu Jintao. But in the nimble cinematic hands of Zhang Yimou, the filmmaker who directed the opening ceremonies, the politics of harmony were conveyed in a visual extravaganza.
The opening ceremonies gave the Communist Party its most uninterrupted, unfiltered chance to reach a gargantuan global audience. At one point, thousands of large umbrellas were snapped open to reveal the smiling, multicultural faces of children of the global village. Benetton could not have done it better.
[Media] [China confrontation]
From Beijing to Battery Park, Activists Stress Causes
By KATRIN BENNHOLD and KEITH BRADSHER
Published: August 8, 2008
PARIS — As the Olympic Games opened in Beijing, protesters around the world sought to capture a bit of the spotlight for human rights issues.
In Ankara, the Turkish capital, a member of China’s Uighur minority drenched himself in gasoline and set himself on fire before fellow demonstrators rushed to extinguish the flames and took him to a hospital.
[China confrontation] [Separatism]
From China, a Spectacle Worthy of a Gold Medal
By Tom Shales
Saturday, August 9, 2008; Page C01
Eye-poppers gave way to jaw-droppers, stunners were followed by dazzlers, and if the absence of a big emotional catharsis was a little disappointing, the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics from Beijing still added up to one of the most visually beautiful evenings of television ever seen.
The combination of wizardly technical effects and sheer numbers of participating performers made the festivities, aired by tape-delay on NBC last night, an awe-inspiring wonder, a gift from China to the world, which China expects to give it new respect and deference in return. The combination of centuries-old art forms and state-of-the-art electronics, plus enough fireworks for a hundred Fourths of July, seemed appropriate for a nation straddling ancient tradition and neo-Western economic revolution.
The ballyhoo and hype have been considerable, but the mesmerizing spectacle lived up to and exceeded expectations
Warmer cross-strait ties improve trade relations
Publication Date:08/07/2008
By Tso Lon-di
A note of optimism in this respect was sounded by OTN Deputy Chief Representative Yang Jen-ni at a July 31 press conference. With the recently improving cross-strait political atmosphere, the ROC stands a better chance of defending its interests within the WTO as well as successfully negotiating FTAs, if political barriers stemming from cross-strait hostility are removed.
As an indication that ROC trade relations as a whole may benefit from warming cross-strait relations, experts from Taiwan and mainland China were simultaneously elected to an influential WTO group July 31. The WTO announced the next day that its Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures had elected four new members to serve in its associated Permanent Group of Experts, including Taiwan's Lo Chang-fa, mainland China's Zhang Yuqing, Pakistan's Manzoor Ahmad, and Jeffrey May of the United States.
[Straits] [WTO]
Olympics Security Is No Game
U.S. companies are supplying high-tech surveillance gear to the Beijing Olympics. The concern is how it might be used after the Games
Even as the likes of McDonald's (MCD), Adidas, and Coca-Cola (KO) spend millions of dollars trumpeting their affiliation with the Beijing Olympics, a different group of multinationals is less eager for the spotlight. China is spending some $6.5 billion on security for the Games, and much of that has gone to foreigners. But given the sensitive nature of those contracts—and a skittishness over being perceived as supporting China's authoritarian government—these companies are often reluctant to discuss what they're doing or how much they're making. "We want to avoid answering sensitive questions," says a staffer in the Beijing office of Panasonic (MC), which has sold surveillance cameras for use at the Games.
That doesn't mean these companies haven't been aggressive in courting business. General Electric (GE), IBM (IBM), Honeywell (HON), Siemens (SI), Panasonic, and LG have all won major contracts providing security technology for the Olympics—one of the biggest security-business opportunities ever, and a shot at lots of ongoing business for those that get in early. The Chinese are laying out more than four times the $1.5 billion that Athens spent on security in 2004, says the Security Industry Assn., a Washington trade group
[Arms sales] [China confrontation] [Separatism]
Beijing Olympics: The Icons
Ancient script, traditional motifs, cuddly cartoon characters—the Beijing Olympics' iconography is carefully calculated. And in China, it's everywhere
by Adam Minter
On a late afternoon in March, the crowded corridors of Shanghai's largest counterfeit-goods market are buzzing. Tourists and locals browse three stories of stalls overflowing with fake iPods, Samsonite luggage, clothes from "Juicy Couture" and "Donna Karan"—even caps and jerseys for the Minnesota Twins. For all of the brands mimicked here in Shanghai's hub of commercial lawlessness, though, there is one brand that is conspicuous for its absence: the one for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. "We cannot sell that," explains a vendor of fake Nike and Adidas running socks. "The police say it will destroy the reputation of the Olympics."
The identity he's talking about has two primary elements. One consists of a set of five blandly playful, cartoon-teddy-bear characters called Fuwa (the name translates roughly as "Lucky Kids"), which cavort on posters, banners, and memorabilia. The other component, and most widespread, is the Olympics logo: a stick figure who appears to be frozen in the act of fleeing, atop the words "Beijing 2008." "Chinese Seal, Dancing Beijing," as it's known, is the official emblem for the August games.
The emblem contains two politically charged components, neither of which is immediately recognizable to those not familiar with Chinese characters or the country's art history. The dancing figure at the center of the emblem is based upon the Chinese character ? (jing), meaning "capital," often used as simple shorthand for Beijing (??, literally "north capital"); it is rendered in a style evocative of China's ancient seal script. The logo is made to look like a Chinese block seal—a stamp still used to mark official approval on documents. In concert, those two elements strongly imply an official seal designed to the specifications of the propagandistic demands of the Chinese government and its corporate partners.
Ubiquitous throughout China, "Dancing Beijing" is the perfect visual metaphor for three decades' worth of alliances forged among the Chinese Communist Party and the world's largest corporations
[IM]
Privatisation would enrich China
By Zhiwu Chen
Published: August 7 2008 19:51 | Last updated: August 7 2008 19:51
China has a large untapped source of further growth: its vast state-owned assets, including enterprises, resources and land. Privatising these assets would unleash the wealth effect and boost domestic consumption. This reform would transform China’s growth model from being investment and export-driven to being led by domestic consumption. It would reduce its over-dependence on industry and stimulate its service sector. At a time of a global slowdown, such reform is timely.
When reform started in 1978, almost all productive assets were state-owned in China. But reforms since then have not included privatisation. Today the government owns more than 70 per cent of China’s productive wealth. During the first 20 years of reform, concentrating the country’s assets in government hands served a good development purpose, allowing the creation of infrastructure and expansion of industrial capacity. If state assets had been privatised, it might have been difficult for China to mobilise resources during the rapid industrialisation of the 1980s and 1990s. To the government’s credit, the initial marketisation-without-privatisation approach has paid off. A robust infrastructure has emerged and China is an industrialised economy.
[Privatisation]
Kim Yong Nam Leaves for Beijing
Pyongyang, August 7 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, left here today to attend the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games to be held in China as honorary guest.
He was accompanied by Pak Kil Yon, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, and other suite members.
Present at the airport to see them off were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the SPA Presidium, Kim Yong Il, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, and Son Kwang Ho, vice-chairman of the Physical Culture and Sports Guidance Commission, and Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK.
China and India: heartlands of global protest
Paul Rogers
The waves of social discontent and insurgency in Asia's rising powers place them at the centre of questions about the world's dominant economic orthodoxy.
7 - 08 - 2008
The exponential growth of the economies of China and India has won for these Asian giants a position of global economic and political prominence. But this process has been accompanied by profound internal discontent, some of which takes violent forms. The respective domestic experiences may be very different, but there are enough commonalities to suggest a lesson for the dominant economic model to which both states now adhere.
[Globalisation] [Separatism]
Violence spreads after Kashmir shrine siege
Rhys Blakely in Bombay
Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, held emergency talks with opposition leaders yesterday in an attempt to calm some of the worst Hindu-Muslim clashes in Kashmir for two decades.
Tensions have been simmering in the Himalayan region since June, when the state government rescinded a decision to give about 40 acres of forest land to Amarnath, a Hindu cave shrine that contains a revered stalagmite, to build facilities for pilgrims. The move, prompted by violent demonstrations by Kashmir’s Muslim majority, triggered counter-protests by Hindus. In riots and battles with police that followed, at least nine people were killed and hundreds injured.
Mr Singh hoped yesterday to gain an assurance from the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that it would not fuel tensions in the area. It has been suggested that BJP activists have orchestrated a virtual siege of the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley by blocking lorries carrying supplies to the region.
[Separatism]
Violence runs through this 'stable' India, built on poverty and injustice
The country the west loves to call a peaceful, capitalist success has a terrorism death toll second only to Iraq
Pankaj Mishra The Guardian, Thursday August 7 2008
In the past five years bomb attacks claimed by Islamist groups have killed hundreds across the Indian cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Varanasi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. An Indian Muslim was even involved in the failed assault on Glasgow airport in July last year. Yet George Bush reportedly introduced Manmohan Singh to his wife, Laura, as "the prime minister of India, a democracy which does not have a single al-Qaida member in a population of 150 million Muslims".
To be fair to Bush, he was only repeating a cliche deployed by Indian politicians and American pundits such as Thomas Friedman to promote India as a squeaky-clean ally of the United States. However, Fareed Zakaria, the Indian-born Muslim editor of Newsweek International, ought to know better. In his new book, The Post-American World, he describes India as a "powerful package" and claims it has been "peaceful, stable, and prosperous" since 1997 - a decade in which India and Pakistan came close to nuclear war, tens of thousands of Indian farmers took their own lives, Maoist insurgencies erupted across large parts of the country, and Hindu nationalists in Gujarat murdered more than 2,000 Muslims.
Apparently, no inconvenient truths are allowed to mar what Foreign Affairs, the foreign policy journal of America's elite, has declared a "roaring capitalist success story". Add Bollywood's singing and dancing stars, beauty queens and Booker prize-winning writers to the Tatas, the Mittals and the IT tycoons, and the picture of Indian confidence, vigour and felicity is complete.
[Media] [Islam] [Spin] [Quadrille]
U.S.-China Olympic rivalry goes beyond counting medals
By Jack Chang | McClatchy Newspapers
BEIJING — While China has billed the 2008 Summer Games starting Friday as the coming-out party of a new world power, the United States enters the 18-day competition struggling to stay on top both in athletics and on the world stage.
Many observers are predicting a second-place U.S. finish in the total medals count as China's giant sports program mounts a potent challenge to longtime U.S. dominance of the Olympics.
Such a result would be seen by many here as symbolic of shifting global power balances, as China's political and economic star rises while U.S. global leadership wobbles.
[China confrontation] [Decline]
China’s Leaders Are Resilient in Face of Change
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: August 6, 2008
BEIJING — As Beijing was starting construction on its main Olympic stadiums four years ago, China’s vice president and leading political fixer, Zeng Qinghong, warned the 70 million members of the ruling Communist Party that the party itself could use some reconstruction.
Mr. Zeng argued that the "painful lessons" from the collapse of other Communist parties in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe could not be ignored. He said China’s cadres needed to "wake up" and realize that "a party’s status as a party in power does not necessarily last as long as the party does."
[China confrontation]
view: Breathe easy about Beijing —Achim Steiner
It is clear that Beijing is striving to be part of the Green Team, embracing environmental standards that are now central to the modern Olympic movement, and that are increasingly part of other big sporting events, such as the Green Goals for the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups
Images of the Beijing skyline seemingly bathed in a soup of smog and haze have been a common sight on the world’s TV screens in recent days and weeks. Foreign journalists with hand-held air pollution detectors have been popping up on street corners checking levels of soot and dust. Everyone seems keen to prove that the city’s air will be a decisive and debilitating factor for one of the world’s most high-profile sporting events.
Without doubt Beijing is facing a huge challenge. There are real and understandable concerns for the health of competitors, especially those in endurance and long-distance events such as cycling and the marathon.
But the current frenzied focus is marked by considerable amnesia. After all, air pollution was a major concern in Los Angeles 24 years ago, though few now seem to recall the dramatic scene at the end of the women’s marathon, when the Swiss competitor was seen staggering and stumbling from exhaustion, the heat, and, perhaps, the effects of air pollution. And air quality was also an issue for subsequent Olympic Games in Barcelona, Atlanta, Seoul, and Athens.
So the debate about the Beijing Games deserves more fair play than it has received.
[Media] [China confrontation]
Breaking Norms in India
As Affluence Spreads, Nontraditional Professions Gain Popularity
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 7, 2008; Page A12
BANGALORE, India -- When Anand Mahesh was a boy, his parents dreamed that he would become a worker bee in India's mammoth civil service. Like many working-class people, they saw job security for him pushing papers or stamping forms in one of the world's biggest bureaucracies.
But young Mahesh dreamed of a career that his parents found peculiar: designing or selling private cars in a country where, at the time, transport usually meant bikes, buses or trains.
A self-described "tech-head," Mahesh applied to work as a salesman at Reva, India's first electric car company, which is helping drive a surge in first-time car ownership here.
A ‘gang’ of countries stands between India and NSG waiver
August 6th, 2008 - 1:54 pm ICT by IANS
By Mehru Jaffer
Vienna, Aug 6 (IANS) Days before the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meets here to consider selling nuclear fuel and technology to India, those for the deal seem to be in a majority even as there is said to be a “gang” of countries who could put a spanner in New Delhi’s hopes. The NSG is expected to meet in Vienna Aug 21 to waive a trade ban with India, although neither the date nor the venue have been officially confirmed. Emotions are running high over the issue.
Some countries fear that a “clean and unconditional” waiver allowing India to buy nuclear fuel and technology from the NSG after a boycott of more than three decades may smack of a lack of commitment on their part to nuclear disarmament.
Other members are indignant that nuclear states like the US do not lead by example and have not fulfilled their obligation to disarm and eliminate the nuclear arms they have stockpiled.
Since India is not a member, it is left to the US to tackle the temper tantrums within the NSG.
[Nuclear deal]
Hurdles in Indo-US nuclear deal
By Sumit Ganguly, OpinionAsia
Published: August 04, 2008, 23:25
On August 1, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) unanimously voted in support of the US-Indian civilian nuclear agreement. Now the agreement goes before the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on August 21 for a second approval before the final nod from the United States Senate. Already a small handful of members of the NSG, most notably, Austria, Brazil, Iraq, Japan and Switzerland have expressed some reservations about the deal because of India's failure to accede to the long-stalled Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
It is time to ignore the partisan carping of the nonproliferation community which fails to recognise India's unique credentials. It can only be hoped that the 45-nation NSG will speedily grant its imprimatur to this extraordinary agreement. Failing to do so would do little to further the cause of nonproliferation.
Third, in a similar vein, it is now alleged that Iran, Pakistan and North Korea, are now demanding that they too be allowed to pursue nuclear commerce alluding to the exception that is about to be granted to India. It is hardly surprising that these states have resorted to this ploy. However, they are in no position to place themselves on an equal diplomatic and moral footing with India.
Sumit Ganguly is a Professor of Political Science and Director of Research of the Center on American and Global Security at Indiana University, Bloomington.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT] [Double standards] [Exceptionalism]
DPRK Students Prove Successful at Int'l Chinese Contest
Pyongyang, August 5 (KCNA) -- Students of School of Foreign Languages under Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies proved successful at the First World Chinese Contest of Middle School Students held in China from July 15 to 30.
The contest brought together 87 students from 24 countries including the DPRK, Mongolia, Singapore, Vietnam, Russia, Portugal, Canada and America.
At the contest Choe Hye Yong and Choe Ji Hye each came first in individual standing by obtaining excellent results in all subjects.
Choe Hye Yong was also awarded the best prize for oratory.
So Yun Mi placed third in individual standing.
'Hallyu' Drives Cosmetic Exports to Chinese Markets
By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
The pan-Chinese market, including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, has been one of the biggest targets for the Korean wave, dubbed ``hallyu.'' Now the trend is driving momentum for exporting something other than pop music, movies and television shows ? cosmetics.
Of last year's beauty product exports, $304.1 million in total, more than half went to those regions, the Korea Cosmetic Association (KCA) announced Tuesday.
Sales to the three states in 2007 stood at a combined $157.5 million, or 51.8 percent of the total, outnumbering those to all other markets worldwide. China purchased $97 million worth of cosmetic products from Korea, taking up 31.9 percent of their exports, with the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan trailing with $33 million, $31.1 million and $29.4 million, respectively.
[Hallyu] [Softpower] [IM]
New mega-embassies underscore close U.S., China ties
By Jack Chang | McClatchy Newspapers
BEIJING — The new U.S. Embassy in the Chinese capital is a sprawling maze of glass and concrete that's the second biggest construction project in the history of the State Department. President Bush himself will inaugurate the complex Friday.
Last week, Chinese officials opened their own giant embassy in Washington, which, at 250,000 square feet, is the biggest embassy in the U.S. capital.
The almost simultaneous inaugurations of the two mega-embassies weren't a coincidence, U.S. officials said. The two superpowers have been working for years to synchronize the openings days before Friday's start of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
The two countries wanted to send a clear message to the world that Chinese-U.S. ties were what U.S. Ambassador to China Clark T. Randt Jr. called "the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century."
[China confrontation]
Lenovo-Designed Olympic Torch for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Unveiled by Beijing Organizing Committee
BEIJING, April 26, 2007 – Today the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) in the presence of the International Olympic Committee, unveiled the Lenovo-designed Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch and announced Lenovo’s role as a Worldwide Partner of the Olympic Torch Relay. Lenovo's design, the "Cloud of Promise," was chosen over 300 competitor themes and will be carried by torchbearers around the world in the Olympic Torch Relay preceding the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Iran heartened by India's nuclear vote
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
The United States-India civilian nuclear cooperation agreement has now been officially endorsed by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which paves the way for its approval by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) - a collection of nations that monitor sales of civilian nuclear technology - this autumn, irrespective of expressed reservations, if not outright opposition, of some NSG members. They are concerned about the adverse impact of this agreement on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), in light of India's status as a de facto nuclear weapons state.
The NSG, which is expected to hold its next meeting on August
21 in Vienna, bans trade with states such as India that have not signed the NPT and will need to give India a waiver. The deal then goes before the US Congress for ratification.
The US-India accord is a Cold War-type agreement that has been diligently promoted by its Washington architects in terms of the US's geostrategic interests, thus raising the ire of both Pakistan and China. Behind the official US justifications of this agreement, the Cold War calculus of regional alignments and bringing New Delhi in closer geopolitical alliance with the US is unmistakable. In turn, this raises serious questions about the near and long-term implications for India's foreign policy orientation.
[Nuclear deal] [IAEA] [Iran]
Getting in Shape for Games, China Strengthens Ties With Neighbors
By EDWARD WONG
Published: August 5, 2008
BEIJING — Until recently, the sight of a Japanese warship steaming toward Chinese shores or of a Chinese aircraft swooping low over Taiwan would have provoked alarm across Asia.
Hu Jintao showed his table tennis and diplomatic skills in May, on the first Tokyo visit by a Chinese head of state in a decade.
But when Japan’s navy made its first Chinese port call since World War II and a Chinese charter plane ferried mainland tourists to neighboring Taiwan this summer, they were symbols not of China’s dangerous rivalries, but of the diplomacy that President Hu Jintao has used to defuse them.
After two years of intensive and often secretive overtures, Taiwan and Japan, two neighbors long viewed as the most likely to face a military threat from a rising China have been drawn closer into its orbit
China needs proof of democracy’s advantage
By Arthur Kroeber
Published: August 3 2008 19:31 | Last updated: August 3 2008 19:31
China is ready for democracy. The arguments against it – heard frequently not just from government officials but from members of the nation’s rising "middle class" – are specious. They are motivated partly by an understandable fear of instability but more by the self-interest of the elites who now hold power.
Yet there is also little evidence that the growing dynamism of China’s economy is creating space for the emergence of democratic institutions. Even as it reformed the economy, the Chinese Communist party skilfully strengthened its control over important economic actors – including virtually all of the nation’s big companies. It also ensured that responses to the country’s major social ills flow mainly through government channels.
There is a tendency among westerners who have forgotten their own history to view democracy dogmatically as an end in itself. In reality, democracy emerged principally as the best means to achieve other desirable social ends such as stable power succession, fair distribution of public goods, the resolution of conflicts between interest groups and government accountability for the use of tax money.
[Democracy]
Rogue Pakistan spies aid Taliban in Afghanistan
Bush warns of ‘serious action’ after evidence of agents masterminding deadly embassy bombing
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Officers from Pakistan’s main intelligence agency have had links with the Taliban
Christina Lamb in Islamabad
The United States has accused Pakistan’s main spy agency of deliberately undermining Nato efforts in Afghanistan by helping the Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants they are supposed to be fighting.
President George W Bush confronted Yusuf Raza Gillani, Pakistan’s prime minister, in Washington last week with evidence of involvement by the ISI, its military intelligence, in a deadly attack on the Afghan capital and warned of retaliation if it continues.
The move comes amid growing fears that Pakistan’s tribal areas are turning into a global launch pad for terrorists.
Gillani, on his first official US visit since being elected in February, was left in no doubt that the Bush administration had lost patience with the ISI’s alleged double game.
[India US Pakistan]
India-Pakistan tensions to overshadow South Asia Summit
18 hours ago
COLOMBO (AFP) — A summit of South Asian leaders opened in Sri Lanka on Saturday, with tensions between India and Pakistan seen eclipsing regional talks on trade, terrorism and poverty.
The summit was inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, outgoing chairman of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
China supports reluctantly even as friend Iran opposes
2 Aug 2008, 0348 hrs IST, Indrani Bagchi,TNN
Print EMail
NEW DELHI: So where was China in all the nuclear deliberations at the IAEA? While it did not raise a demand for a vote, China made it clear that it was a reluctant supporter of the nuclear agreement.
In its statement, China said the world should treat "in a balanced manner various countries' aspirations for nuclear power" slipping in the nuclear demand by its traditional ally, Pakistan.
China's statement said it hoped the IAEA decision would realize the non-proliferations objectives of the NPT and the IAEA statute. But in a significant comment, China took the side of another developing country, India, by saying: "As a developing country, China knows well that energy is important to living standards and social progress. It is always China's view that each country has the right to carry out activities related to the peaceful use of nuclear energy..."
[Nuclear deal] [China India] [NPT] [Double standards] [US dominance]
New Korean Pop Culture Wave Hits China
Some 1,700 Chinese fans of the Korean Wave packed seats of a concert co-produced by Korea's CJ Entertainment and Chinese CCTV, as part of the "Meet in Beijing" cultural event recently organized by Beijing authorities.
Gracing the concert were five Korean teams, including balladeer Shin Seung-hun, sexy Chae Yeon, pop idols Battle and nine Chinese teams, including national singer Sun Nan and Taiwanese vocalist Zhou Huajian. The event climaxed when singers and the audience sang the 1988 Seoul Olympic theme song "Hand in Hand" and "Beijing Huan Yin Ni (Beijing Welcomes You)", written to mark D-100 of the Beijing Olympics.
Experts predict the concert could rekindle the Korean pop culture wave in China, which has recently lost momentum.
[Hallyu] [Softpower]
China drops heavy Internet censorship — at least for now
More on this Story
On the Web | McClatchy 2008 Beijing Olympic coverage
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
BEIJING — China Friday opened major cracks in its Great Firewall, allowing Internet users in the nation's largest cities rare glimpses at foreign Web sites that censors have blocked for years.
China loosened its Internet restrictions after several days of intense foreign criticism that it had reneged on a pledge to relax censorship around the period of the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympic Games.
In a highly unusual meeting with a group of foreign journalists early Friday, President Hu Jintao said that China would stand by the pledges of openness it made in 2001 when it was bidding for the right to host this year's Summer Games.
"The Chinese government and the Chinese people have been working in real earnest to honor the commitments made to the international community," Hu told the journalists.
At the televised news conference, Hu warned foreign journalists to abide by Chinese laws but said that even after the Games are over, China will "welcome foreign journalists and facilitate their reporting."
Despite Flaws, Rights in China Have Expanded
By HOWARD W. FRENCH
Published: August 2, 2008
SHANGHAI — For the past two decades, China’s people became richer but not much freer, and the Communist Party has staked its future on their willingness to live with that tradeoff.
That, at least, is the conventional wisdom. But as the Olympic Games approach, training a spotlight on China’s rights record, that view obscures a more complex reality: political change, however gradual and inconsistent, has made China a significantly more open place for average people than it was a generation ago.
IAEA Approves Inspections Plan Required for India-U.S. Nuclear Deal
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, August 2, 2008; Page A16
NEW DELHI, Aug. 1 -- A U.N. nuclear watchdog group on Friday unanimously approved an inspections plan for India's civilian nuclear energy plants, a key step toward completing a controversial nuclear deal between the United States and India.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board granted the approval after meeting in the Austrian capital, Vienna, officials said. The board agreed to regular IAEA surveillance of India's 14 declared civilian nuclear energy plants.
[Nuclear deal] [IAEA]
WTO: Why India and China Said No to U.S.
Trade talks broke down July 29 as India and China refused to bow to U.S. demands on agricultural subsidies
by Bruce Einhorn and Mehul Srivastava
It's not often that China and India find themselves on the same side. They're the world's most populous countries and have two of the fastest-growing economies, but one is ruled by a communist regime, the other by an unruly coalition government. They don't see eye to eye about relations with the U.S. China has been a longtime supporter of Pakistan, India's bitter rival. And Indians look enviously at China's manufacturing strength, while Chinese want to replicate India's IT services success.
Following the collapse of the latest global trade talks, though, the two Asian giants find themselves in the same boat.
[Globalisation] [China India Cooperation]
Most IAEA members worried about precedent being set for Pakistan
Siddharth Varadarajan
Some Western members are unhappy at the lack of automaticity in the agreement
“We see India as a unique case,” says one Western member
Not enough time to study Indian draft, feel some members
Vienna: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) secretariat may have deflected Pakistan’s criticisms of the Indian safeguards agreement last week by suggesting Islamabad could follow a similar approach but most members of the IAEA Board say their biggest worry in approving India’s draft would be the danger of setting a precedent for its neighbour.
These fears have been amplified by the recent remarks made by Pakistan Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, when he said “there should be no discrimination” and that “if [the IAEA wants] to give such nuclear status to India, we expect the same for Pakistan.”
[NPT] [Nuclear deal] [India US Pakistan]
U.S. Officials: Pakistani Agents Helped Plan Kabul Bombing
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 1, 2008; Page A01
U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that elements of Pakistan's military intelligence service provided logistical support to militants who staged last month's deadly car bombing at the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan's capital, U.S. officials familiar with the evidence said yesterday.
The finding, based partly on communication intercepts, has dramatically heightened U.S. concerns about long-standing ties between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, and Taliban-allied groups that are battling U.S. forces in Afghanistan, according to two U.S. government officials briefed on the matter.
[India US Pakistan]
Hard Line at WTO Earns Indian Praise
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, August 1, 2008; Page A12
NEW DELHI, July 31 -- After nine days of talking tough at the Geneva global trade meeting, which ended in collapse, chief Indian negotiator Kamal Nath returned to New Delhi on Thursday to a hero's welcome.
He was congratulated by colleagues at a cabinet meeting for "bravely fighting the nation's battle." During an interview, his cellphone beeped constantly with text messages reading "Well done," "You have made India proud" and "You held your own in Geneva."
China’s Industrial Ambition Soars to High-Tech
By DAVID BARBOZA
Published: August 1, 2008
SHENZHEN, China — Few people have heard of the BYD Corporation — BYD for Build Your Dream — but this little-known company has grown into the world’s second-largest battery producer in less than a decade of existence. Now it plans to make a great leap forward: "We’d like to make a green energy car, a plug-in," said Paul Lin, a BYD marketing executive. "We think we can do that."
Skip to next paragraph Even in go-go China, such lofty aspirations may sound far-fetched. But BYD has built a 16-million-square-foot auto assembly plant here and hired a team of Italian-trained car designers; it plans to build a green hybrid by the end of the year.
No longer content to be the home of low-skilled, low-cost, low-margin manufacturing for toys, pens, clothes and other goods, Chinese companies are trying to move up the value chain, hoping eventually to challenge the world’s biggest corporations for business, customers, power and recognition
[China competition] [Globalisation]
Pakistan not eligible for similar n-deal: Burns
Washington: The former Under Secretary of State of Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, one of the architects of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, feels Pakistan cannot expect a similar pact, a day after its Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani demanded such a deal from the U.S.
[NPT] [Nuclear deal] [India US Pakistan]
Australia to back India-U.S. nuclear deal at IAEA
Reuters
Friday, August 1, 2008; 2:48 AM
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will back an India-U.S. nuclear agreement at an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Vienna, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Friday.
However, Smith said Australia would not reverse its policy of refusing to sell uranium to countries, such as India, that have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
India after Ahmedabad’s bombs
Ajai Sahni
The lesson of the serial blasts against Indian cities is that the danger to life and security in the country also lies in the infirmity of its institutions, says Ajai Sahni.
29 - 07 - 2008
Another succession of bomb blasts momentarily interrupted India's national slumber. The latest occasion was in Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat on 26 July 2008, which followed those a day earlier in Bangalore in the southern state of Karnataka. It may or may not be coincidental that the states targeted in the last three major serial blasts (including Jaipur in Rajasthan, bombed on 13 May) are all ruled by the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Ahmedabad explosions - seventeen in all - occurred in rapid succession in a densely populated band along the eastern part of the city, killing at least forty-nine persons and injured 145 (many of them critically). The areas affected were of mixed populations, and included areas of high Muslim densities. There is at the time of writing no information as to the religious affiliation of victims, but it is clear that these must include a large proportion of Muslims.
Who perpetrated these attacks?
The gravest threat to India's security is not Pakistan, not that country's Inter-Services Intelligence, not terrorism, but the limitless acts of omission, the venality and the ineptitude of the political and administrative executive, and the complete absence of accountability in the top echelons of government. In this sense India's greatest enemy is within.
China to extend Africa acquisitions
By Tom Burgis in Lubumbashi
Published: July 30 2008 19:17 | Last updated: July 30 2008 19:17
China is readying to move into Africa on a scale that far outstrips its acquisitions on the continent to date, according to the South African bank that is laying the groundwork.
High-level groups of bankers from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Standard Bank, respectively China and Africa’s biggest banks, are examining potential targets in Africa’s oil and gas, telecoms, base metals and power sectors, executives at the Johannesburg-based lender have told the Financial Times.
Clive Tasker, chief executive of Standard Bank’s business in Africa excluding South Africa, said the resultant deals were likely to be at least as large as ICBC’s $5.5bn (£2.7bn, €3.5bn) purchase last year of a 20 per cent stake in Standard – itself the largest foreign direct investment in post-apartheid South Africa.
IMG Worldwide Scores Sports Deal With China: WSJ
By REUTERS
Published: July 31, 2008
Filed at 5:49 a.m. ET
Skip to next paragraph (Reuters) - Sports marketing company IMG Worldwide Inc has struck an exclusive 20-year deal with China's national TV broadcaster that gives the US company the right to develop and market new sports events, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Seeking to capitalize on the growing interest in sports ahead of next month's Beijing Olympics, privately held IMG and state-run CCTV are launching a venture that aims to step up the commercialization of sports in China, the paper said.[IM] [Services]
Not a done deal yet
Minhaz Merchant
July 29, 2008
The Indo-US nuclear deal is now being fast-tracked through the International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Suppliers Group and America's Congress. There are, however, three further mutation points for the deal. At each point, the prime minister -- as he clearly pledged during the Lok Sabha debate on July 21 and 22 -- will have to bring the deal back to Parliament.
[Nuclear deal]
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14726893
India gets positive response from NSG, IAEA members
Wednesday, 30 July , 2008, 09:42
Tehran: India has received a positive response from NAM countries which are members of the IAEA and the NSG on the Indo-US nuclear deal after it briefed them on the safeguards agreement which the global nuclear watchdog will consider on Friday.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who arrived in the Iranian capital on Monday to take part in the Non-Aligned Movement ministerial meeting, met on Tuesday evening with his counterpart from Algeria, which is part of the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors.
Iraq, China Top U.S. 'Enemies' List
WASHINGTON (AP) ? China has replaced North Korea as one of the top three U.S. enemies, according to a poll of Americans.
Iran topped the list, with 25 percent naming it when asked which country is the greatest U.S. enemy, according to the Gallup Poll. Iraq came next at 22 percent, then China with 14 percent.
North Korea was named by 9 percent - half the number who cited it a year earlier. Pyongyang agreed last year to disable its nuclear facilities in exchange for aid, though disputes have continued over implementing the deal.
China, a growing economic rival of the U.S., was cited by 11 percent as top enemy a year ago.
Gallup first asked the question in early 2001, before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. At the time, Iraq was seen as the biggest foe, followed by China and Iran.
Iraq has remained one of the most frequently named ever since, even though Saddam Hussein was overthrown and the current Baghdad government is backed by the U.S.
[China confrontation] [Bizarre]
China: Humiliation & the Olympics
By Orville Schell
Volume 55, Number 13 · August 14, 2008
Dark Matter
a film directed by Chen Shi-Zheng
Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895–2008
by Xu Guoqi
Harvard University Press, 377 pp., $29.95
China's New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society
by Daniel A. Bell
Princeton University Press, 240 pp., $26.95
China's New Nationalism: Pride, Politics, and Diplomacy
by Peter Hays Gries
University of California Press, 215 pp., $21.95 (paper)
China's Great Leap: The Beijing Olympic Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges
Edited by Minky Worden, with an introduction by Nicholas Kristof
Seven Stories, 231 pp., $18.95 (paper)
The Passions of Joseph Needham
By Jonathan D. Spence
Volume 55, Number 13 · August 14, 2008
The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
by Simon Winchester
Harper, 316 pp., $27.95
It is now a little over four hundred years since a scattering of Westerners first began to try to learn the Chinese language. Across that long span, the number of scholars studying Chinese has grown, but their responses to the challenges of Chinese script have been generally consistent. Most have just slogged away, with reasonable success, and treated the task as an intellectual challenge on a par with many others. But at pretty much any period, one can trace two other groupings whose views are far more extreme. One such group contained those who came to hate and despise the Chinese language; they found it unlearnable, and grew convinced that the whole language was some kind of plot to snare the unwary, and even to drive poor foreigners mad.
The other group was composed of those whose first encounter with Chinese writing filled them with excitement and joy, and as they started to write and learn the correct strokes that composed each character, their fascination grew ever stronger. Which grouping any given seeker after knowledge might fall into was partly a matter of inclination and partly chance. One's first teacher could kindle a passion for the language that would never fade, or could drive one forever from the flowery paths of learning.
Simon Winchester leaves us in no doubt that Joseph Needham, the subject of his latest book, was one of those who fell in love with the Chinese language.
China Polishes Glorious History for Olympics
About 1,000 volunteers flocked to the Taimiao Temple in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China on July 19. In front of the temple, a shrine to the emperors who ruled the country, they shouted slogans such as "Successful Olympics!" and "Go, China!"
The Beijing Olympics, which will open 10 days from today, is not least a stage for the Chinese to market their tradition and culture. The Chinese are determined to revive the glorious history of Chinese empires and re-emerge as the "center of the world," much like the Middle Kingdom.
? Chinese traders rise again
Qianmen Street, one of the three landmarks of Beijing alongside the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Gate will be restored to an early 20th century streetscape in early August. "Laozihao" or time-honored brands which contributed to turning the street lined with long-standing stores into a prosperous area a century ago have made a comeback.
Chinese authorities will give subsidies to the owners of about 20 of the brands so they can prosper on this street recalling the last years of the Qing Dynasty. They include Quanjude, a roast duck restaurant that opened in 1864, Tongrentang, a herbal drugstore, Zhangyiyuan, a shop of high-brand teas, and Goubuli, a dumpling restaurant.
China wants to globalize these traditional brands. Quanjude, which has already been listed on the stock market, has declared it will become China's McDonald's by standardizing its recipes.
[Brand]
The lure of the great cliché of China
By Gideon Rachman
Published: July 28 2008 18:58 | Last updated: July 28 2008 18:58
In normal weeks, I try to say something original in my column and to avoid writing in clichés. But this week I have decided to change tack.
The task I have set myself is to write an article entirely composed of received wisdom and tired phrases. The central argument must be a cliché. Every idea must be a cliché. Every sentence must contain a cliché.
This is harder than it sounds. But I have been aided in my task by careful rereading of my own work. In the matter of clichés, we are all sinners. And with that appropriately hackneyed thought, let me begin:
The Beijing Olympics is one of those iconic moments that tell us we have reached a tipping point. Our kids are going to inherit a very different world.
China, protesters may play cat-and-mouse during Olympics
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
BEIJING — Activists savor the chance to steal the spotlight during the Olympic Games and air their grievances. They'd like to unfurl banners, streak across playing fields and hack into stadium screens.
China is even more determined to stop them.
One of the more interesting events in this summer's Aug. 8-24 Summer Olympics isn't even a sanctioned sport: It may be the cat-and-mouse game between activists and police, or between opinionated Olympic medalists eager to mouth off and officials ready to stifle them. These are the potential "demonstration" sports of the most politically charged Olympic Games in decades.
United States Supports India's Civil Nuclear Pact
28 July 2008
IAEA board to decide on safeguards agreement August 1
Australian Foreign Minister Smith and Secretary of State Rice
Secretary of State Rice, right, and Australian Foreign Minister Smith talk during Rice’s visit to the city of Perth in Australia.
By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Staff Writer
Washington -- India is facing increasing demand for new energy sources to bolster its expanding economy and meet the needs of a population that exceeds 1.1 billion people.
A proposed U.S.-India civil nuclear accord could make ample energy resources a more likely possibility with final approval by early fall this year. The nuclear accord would bring India into the nuclear nonproliferation mainstream, help India meet its growing energy needs while protecting the environment, and deepen the strategic partnership between many nations and India, says Ambassador Gregory Schulte, the U.S. permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
[Nuclear deal]
China Group Asserts That It Bombed Buses
Officials Play Down Claims on Video, Which Includes Threats to Olympics
By Jill Drew
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, July 27, 2008; Page A14
BEIJING, July 26 -- A group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party has released a video asserting responsibility for deadly bus bombings last week in China's western Yunnan province and other recent incidents, and threatening attacks during the Olympic Games. [Separatism]
New Perspectives on Chinese Collaboration
Margherita Zanasi
The question of moral judgment looms large over every discussion of World War II collaboration, at times clouding and distorting our understanding of this complex issue, as Timothy Brook poignantly remarks in his contribution to this journal’s recent symposium. This moral question is certainly relevant and should not be dismissed, since collaboration came to be more or less directly associated with the civic and human rights infringements perpetrated by the occupying forces.[1] Always complex, this question becomes murkier when linked to the rhetoric of patriotism and to postwar political agendas, as is the case with the “resistentialist” postwar narrative that has dominated the debate on collaboration until recently.[2] This narrative has mythologized resistance and enshrined it as the only patriotic, moral, and honorable response to foreign occupation, gliding over difficult moral dilemmas raised by some strategies and practices of resistance. In the process, it has polarized the debate on collaboration by offering only two opposite and monolithically-conceived categories: moral and patriotic resistance versus unethical and treasonous collaboration.
[Imperialism] [Nationalism] [Making] [Japanese colonialism]
China's Cars, Accelerating A Global Demand for Fuel
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, July 28, 2008; Page A01
SONGJIANG, China -- Nodding his head to the disco music blaring out of his car's nine speakers, Zhang Linsen swings the shiny, black Hummer H2 out of his company's gates and on to the spacious four-lane road.
Running a hand over his closely shaved head, Zhang scans the expanse of high-end suburban offices and villas that a decade ago was just another patch of farmland outside of Shanghai. To his left is a royal blue sedan with a couple and a baby, in front of him a lone young woman being chauffeured in a van.
"In China, size matters," says Zhang, the 44-year-old founder of a media and graphic design company. "People want to have a car that shows off their status in society. No one wants to buy small." [China demand]
IAEA safeguards grant India nuclear weapons status: Pakistan
Siddharth Varadarajan
May move amendments to draft in Board meeting
New Delhi: In a four-page letter addressed to Board members of the IAEA, Pakistan has attacked the draft Indian safeguards agreement for envisaging termination conditions and fuel supply arrangements which could allow India to “divert part of [any imported] fuel for weapons purposes.”
At the same time, it said that the Indian model should not be “discriminatory” and should be applied to states such as itself.
[Nuclear deal]
Historical Photographs of China
A collaboration between scholars at the University of Bristol, University of Lincoln, and the Institut d'Asie Orientale, this project aims to locate, archive, and disseminate photographs from the substantial holdings of images of modern China held mostly in private hands overseas.
Olympics threatened by Islamic separatists
Little-known Muslim group claims responsibility for a series of explosions in Chinese cities and warns that its next target will be the Beijing Games
Tania Branigan in Beijing The Observer, Sunday July 27 2008
Article history
A Muslim separatist group yesterday claimed responsibility for a series of fatal explosions in several Chinese cities and threatened to target the Olympic Games, due to begin on 8 August.
Chinese officials dismissed video statements by spokesmen claiming to represent the little-known Turkestan Islamic Party, who warned that they would attack next month's Games and said they were to blame for the previous blasts. A US terrorism-monitoring firm published a transcript of their video.
The Chinese authorities have repeatedly alleged that extremists from the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang - known as East Turkestan by separatists among the Uighur Muslim population - were targeting the Olympics. Officials have blamed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and, more recently, Hizb ut-Tahrir for plots. The AFP news agency quoted intelligence analysts Stratfor as saying the Turkestan Islamic Party was another name for ETIM.
[Separatism]
India on Alert After Two Days Of Bombings Kill 40
By REUTERS
Published: July 27, 2008
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - India's major cities were put on high alert on Sunday, with fears of more attacks after at least 40 people were killed in two days of bombings that hit a communally-sensitive western city and a southern IT hub
At least 16 small bombs exploded in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Saturday, killing at least 39 people and wounding 110, a day after another set of blasts in Bangalore killed a woman.
A little known group called the "Indian Mujahideen" claimed responsibility for the Ahmedabad attack on Saturday. The same group said it carried out bombs attacks that killed 63 people in the western city of Jaipur in May.
It is unusual for any group to claim responsibility, but India says it suspects militant groups from Pakistan and Bangladesh are behind a wave of bombings in recent years, with targets ranging from mosques (sic) and Hindu temples to trains.
[Media]
A Long Wait at the Gate to Greatness
By John Pomfret
Sunday, July 27, 2008; Page B01
Nikita Khrushchev said the Soviet Union would bury us, but these days, everybody seems to think that China is the one wielding the shovel. The People's Republic is on the march -- economically, militarily, even ideologically. Economists expect its GDP to surpass America's by 2025; its submarine fleet is reportedly growing five times faster than Washington's; even its capitalist authoritarianism is called a real alternative to the West's liberal democracy. China, the drumbeat goes, is poised to become the 800-pound gorilla of the international system, ready to dominate the 21st century the way the United States dominated the 20th.
Except that it's not.
[China confrontation] [Decline]
Statue park preserves generalissimo's legacy
Publication Date:07/25/2008 Section:Panorama
By Amber Wu
If you go down to the woods today in Taoyuan County's Dasi Township then you are sure for a big surprise. Forget picnicking teddy bears because in a verdant clearing at Cihu Sculpture Park, more than 150 statues of former President Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) stand in a scene of Bunuelesque proportions.
Most of the statues of the four-hectare park show Chiang as what he is perhaps best known--a powerful generalissimo--but in others he becomes a role-player. Sitting cross-legged with a book on his knee, he is a scholar; in full military uniform astride a horse, he is the protector of his people; standing in unadorned fatigues with a walking cane and fedora hat in hand, he is a wizened elder statesman.
Acutely aware of his image, Chiang--who led the Republic of China from 1928 until his death--had bronze statues of his likeness scattered across Taiwan in public spaces, schools and military bases. The engineering of this personality cult also extended to naming buildings, streets and even the international airport after the leader.
Cabinet relaxes curbs on mainland China investments
Publication Date:07/25/2008
By Edwin Hsiao
The Executive Yuan announced a raft of measures July 17 aimed at broadening the range of investment opportunities available to Taiwanese companies seeking to invest on the Chinese mainland.
Premier Liu Chao-hsiuan said that lifting the ceiling on investing in mainland China is one of the major adjustments needed to boost cross-strait economic and trade exchanges. "Those enterprises maintaining headquarters in Taiwan will be granted greater flexibility in how they use their capital, which will help expand the firms' domestic investments and upgrade their technologies," he explained.
The latest moves, expected to take effect Aug. 1, center around the Executive Yuan's raising of the ceiling on China-bound investments to 60 percent for most companies in Taiwan. Moreover, local subsidiaries of foreign-based multinational enterprises and companies, which have obtained a certification of "headquarters" issued by the MOEA's Industrial Development Bureau, will be exempt from the investment limitation.
[Straits] [FDI]
India Police Say Few Clues Over Bangalore Bombings
By REUTERS
Published: July 26, 2008
Filed at 3:20 a.m. ET
Skip to next paragraph BANGALORE, India (Reuters) - Indian police have few leads into the eight bombings in quick succession across the south Indian IT city of Bangalore that killed a woman and wounded at least six people on Friday, officials said.
An unexploded bomb was found near a shopping mall in Bangalore on Saturday, but it was unclear whether the bomb was newly planted or meant to have exploded during Friday's attacks, police said.
All Eyes on India's Nuclear Prize
The nation plans to quintuple its nuclear power capacity, but Russia and France may sew up most of the deals
By Mehul Srivastava
NEW DELHI - After a bruising fight in India's Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has finally pushed through a deal with the U.S. that would open the country to American nuclear suppliers. U.S. companies such as GE Energy (GE), WM Mining, and Westinghouse Electric (WEC) have long hoped to win a substantial chunk of the billions of dollars in contracts that the pact might unlock. "Everyone knows this is big," says Tejpreet Chopra, CEO of GE India. "We're just waiting to see how much capacity the government is willing to add and where."
[Nuclear deal] [India market]
Comment: Should Buddha smile again? —Zawar Abidi
The haste with which the draft agreement has been presented before the IAEA resonates of Indian politicking. With a grave political drama in the backdrop, could it be that India is using the Board to get an early approval to move quickly to the Nuclear Suppliers Group
“There is nothing in the agreement which places an embargo on India’s right to carry out a nuclear test if it thinks this is necessary in India’s supreme national interest.” — The Indian Prime Minister’s Office, July 2, 2008
Notice the irony of the non- proliferation regime; it seeks strength from India which shattered it in 1974. India now is hopeful of seeking approval for an India-specific safeguards agreement from the IAEA Board of Governors (BoG).
[Nuclear deal] [NPT] [IEAE]
Australia looks positively at US-India N-deal
Rice says deal to reduce spread of pollution, weapons
Friday, July 25, 2008
PERTH, Australia: Australia is looking positively at a US-Indian civilian nuclear energy deal despite its policy of refusing to export uranium to India, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Thursday.
Smith told reporters travelling with him to Perth from Singapore that Australia would now have to make a decision on whether to support it, possibly by mid-August, now that the deal has survived in the Indian parliament.
“Our consideration of the India-US civil arrangement certainly won’t lead to a change of policy so far as Australia’s exports of uranium are concerned,” Smith said aboard US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s plane.
[Nuclear deal] [Sanctions]
Pakistan warns that US-India nuclear deal could lead to new arms race
Pakistan warned the international community yesterday that a deal allowing India to import US atomic fuel and technology could accelerate a nuclear arms race between Delhi and Islamabad.
[Nuclear deal] [India US Pakistan]
Safeguards pact may hit Pak-Ireland roadblock
Thursday, 24 July , 2008, 11:12
Last Updated: Thursday, 24 July , 2008, 12:37
Vienna: The road to the approval of a safeguards agreement by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been tough for India and it continues to face hurdles in the form of opposition by Pakistan and Ireland who are sceptical of the deal since India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
[Nuclear deal] [NPT]
Decision time for India's nuclear exemption
ERNIE REGEHR
Special to Globe and Mail Update
July 24, 2008 at 12:27 AM EDT
So the on-again, off-again U.S.-India civilian nuclear co-operation deal is back on, although just barely. Tuesday, after a raucous two-day debate complete with cash-for-votes charges, the Indian Parliament voted confidence in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government and the nuclear deal on which he staked his administration.
The Nuclear Suppliers Group operates by consensus, which means that each state, including Canada, has a de facto veto — significant influence over any outcome.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT]
National and Global Leaders Must Stop the US/India Nuclear Trade Deal, Says MPI Chairman
July 23, 2008: The proposed U.S.-India nuclear trade deal would critically undermine the Non-Proliferation Treaty and must be stopped, former Canadian Senator Douglas Roche, Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative, said today.
“MPI calls once again on all relevant governments and international authorities to use their authority to stop the agreement from being reached,” Senator Roche said.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT]
It is time to embrace freer trade with China
By Jack Ma
Published: July 24 2008 18:18 | Last updated: July 24 2008 18:18
As the US election approaches and the Doha round of trade talks has resumed this week in Geneva, there is much debate about the future of global trade and the emergence of China as a trade leader. The timing of the Doha round could not be more significant, as an economic slowdown has given rise to a new wave of protectionist sentiment. Yet it is important for world leaders to resist calls for protectionism and seize the moment to lift trade barriers. Embracing freer trade – with China as an engine of global economic growth – is the best chance to jump-start economies and provide job opportunities in both developed and developing nations.
[Globalisation] [Protectionism] [China competition]
The South China Sea Hydra
By Mark Valencia
July 24th, 2008
Mark Valencia, a Maritime Policy Analyst and a Nautilus Institute Senior Associate, writes, “The South China Sea situation deserves renewed attention by ASEAN and perhaps the ARF. Moving forward to an agreement on a legally binding Code of Conduct for the South China Sea has become urgent.”
With Indian Politics, the Bad Gets Worse
'Shameful' Vote in Parliament Highlights Extent of Government Corruption
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 24, 2008; Page A14
NEW DELHI, July 23 -- There were backroom deals. There were wads of cash waved about as alleged evidence of bribery. There were six lawmakers on hand who had just been sprung from jail so they could cast their ballots.
So it went on the floor of India's Parliament this week during a historic vote on whether to back the government and its controversial nuclear deal with the United States.
Even by Indian standards, it was bad. Members of Parliament were throwing money on the floor, asserting they had been paid off by the ruling Congress party to support a measure of confidence in the government.
[Nuclear deal] [Corruption]
Indian government survives no-confidence vote
Its controversial deal to import US nuclear technology and fuel can now go ahead.
By Mian Ridge | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the July 23, 2008 edition
Reporter Mian Ridge discusses why some Indian MPs were waving huge wads of money during the no-confidence vote in parliament.
New Delhi - Amid uproarious scenes, India's government avoided collapse Tuesday when it won a perilously close vote of confidence in parliament. The win means India can now focus on pushing through a much-vaunted, long-delayed nuclear deal with the United States.
Had the government lost the vote, the world's biggest democracy would have faced early elections and the Indo-US nuclear deal would almost certainly have been canned.
[Nuclear deal] [Corruption]
FM rubs it in, Left and Right
23 Jul, 2008, 0142 hrs IST, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: Finance minister P Chidambaram touched the raw nerve of the Left on Tuesday saying that there has not been anything more bizarre in the history of Parliament than the two “disparate groups”— Left and the BJP — coming together to vote against the confidence motion.
[Nuclear deal]
Indian vote clears path for landmark US nuclear deal
· Sick and jailed MPs attend parliamentary ballot
· Accord paves way to end status as rogue state
* Randeep Ramesh in Delhi
* The Guardian,
* Wednesday July 23, 2008
The Indian government last night survived a knife-edge parliamentary vote of confidence, clearing the way for a landmark nuclear deal with the US which marks the end of India's international isolation as a rogue nuclear weapons state.
The vote came after weeks of political horse-trading saw allegations of MPs being offered million-pound bribes, others being assured of cabinet posts and bizarre claims that some had been kidnapped.
Just hours before the vote, opposition MPs brought 10m rupees (£117,750) in cash into the parliament to highlight the corruption claims, which will now be investigated by the parliamentary authorities.
[Nuclear deal] [Corruption]
A deal-breaker for India
By M K Bhadrakumar
History never ceases to surprise. What began as the "Great Middle East" strategy in the minds of a neo-conservative Connecticut Yankee from Texas may end up in the democratization of India. Yes, paradoxically, the legacy of the George W Bush era for South Asia may turn out to be that the 60-year old democratization process in India took a quantum leap.
In a colonial bungalow on a leafy street in central Delhi on Sunday afternoon, a group of political leaders gathered. What is unfolding is indeed a historical process, and like when forces of history begin to unfold them, old dykes are bound to give away. Indians are holding breath. What lies ahead is how torrential the flow
becomes as it gathers speed. Indian politics is never going to be the same again.
nstead, the government blatantly resorted to manipulative methods of dissimulation and doublespeak to sidestep parliament. The latest Delhi grapevine is that the government has been bribing members of parliament to come on board the deal and that the going rate of purchase of loyalty is US$6.25 million per member. Surely, that is corruption on an epic scale for even a notoriously corrupt country like India, which Transparency International places at somewhere near the bottom of the pit in the world community.
The Bush administration will be watching closely the efficacy of pushing such a controversial deal through against robust opinion in a democratic society. It sets an important precedent. Two crucial tests lie ahead in Central Europe - deployment of the components of the US missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Ukraine's membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - where the majority opinion is manifestly against deal-making with the US, but the Bush administration is pressing ahead regardless.
[Nuclear deal] [Corruption] [Democracy]
Indian coalition survives trust vote
By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi and Joe Leahy in Mumbai
Published: July 22 2008 17:49 | Last updated: July 22 2008 17:49
Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, makes a sign of peace before the crucial vote in New Delhi on Tuesday
India’s ruling coalition narrowly survived a crucial parliamentary vote of confidence on Tuesday, giving it a full mandate to push forward with a groundbreaking agreement to co-operate with the US on civilian nuclear energy development.
After days of frantic backroom wheeling and dealing to woo undecided legislators and poach defectors from the rival camp, the Congress party-led coalition gained 275 votes of support, with 256 against.
[Nuclear deal]
Mirae pulls the plug on Indian fund
July 23, 2008
Korea’s largest asset management company recently canceled a fund investing in India due to mounting losses, according to the company.
Mirae Asset Investments said its investors agreed on July 15 that the India Value Equity fund 1CLASS-C2 should be discontinued.
The fund had posted a minus 20.1 percent return rate since last October, when it was created.
The value of the fund shrank from 10 billion won ($9.8 million) to 7.9 billion won during the period. The remaining money was distributed to investors, the company said.
According to Zeroin, a local fund evaluator, 10 other overseas equity funds also called it quits this year.
But Mirae’s India fund grabbed the attention of local analysts as it was the first India-based fund to fail. Mirae and other local asset mangers have been putting weight on both India and China.
Indian Government Survives Confidence Vote
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: July 23, 2008
NEW DELHI — The Indian government survived a confidence vote in Parliament on Tuesday evening, paving the way for India to seal a landmark nuclear agreement with the United States. But the entire parliamentary process was tainted by allegations of bribery made on the floor of the house.
Times Topics: IndiaPrime Minister Manmohan Singh, who initiated the confidence motion, won 275 votes, while his opponents secured 256 votes, and 11 members abstained. It was a wider margin of victory than politics watchers had predicted, and it came on the heels of two days of acrimonious debate and constant heckling, some of it directed at Mr. Singh, who was unable to finish his closing speech to the legislature
[Nuclear deal]
India's Government Wins Parliament Confidence Vote
By Rama Lakshmi and Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, July 23, 2008; Page A12
NEW DELHI, July 22 -- The Indian government survived a crucial vote of confidence Tuesday, clearing the way for the contentious nuclear energy deal with the United States, after a debate peppered with dramatic allegations of backroom lobbying and bribery.
The vote concluded a bitter, nine-month battle in support of the deal by the now-beleaguered coalition government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The agreement, which would give India access to the world market for nuclear fuel and technology, must be approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which governs the trade of nuclear materials. The U.S. Congress would then vote on the accord.
"This vote gives a clear message to the world that India's head and heart are sound and India is prepared to take its rightful place in the comity of nations," said a beaming Singh, whose supporters set off firecrackers and beat celebratory drums in the streets of New Delhi. "I have always said the deal was important, and now we know it."
[Nuclear deal]
Indian government narrowly wins support for U.S. nuclear cooperation deal
Wild political theater precedes the confidence vote that advances an agreement to allow companies to sell nuclear technology to India in exchange for international inspections.
By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
9:35 AM PDT, July 22, 2008
NEW DELHI -- The Indian government won a confidence vote by a slim margin today, keeping alive the possibility that a beleaguered nuclear cooperation deal with the U.S. would continue to move forward.
After two days of heated debate, lawmakers voted 275 to 256 in support of the government in what turned out to be not only a referendum on the nuclear accord but also, in the eyes of many, an extraordinary display of backroom deal-making, alleged chicanery and political theater. Both sides pulled out all stops in the run-up to the cliffhanger vote. Political enemies on the left and right banded together in unlikely alliances. The government renamed an airport after the father of one lawmaker it was trying to woo. Members of parliament in prison for murder were temporarily released to cast their ballots, as were others sick in the hospital.
[Nuclear deal]
Chinese Civil Society After the 512 Earthquake
By Jia Xijin
July 22nd, 2008
Jia Xijin, Associate Professor at the NGO Research Center at Tsinghua University, writes, "NGOs in China face capacity-building problems such as how to cooperate to avoid repeated work, how to avoid volunteers themselves turning into aid targets, how to maintain social credibility, etc. Nevertheless, the government needs to make efforts to help NGOs in opening up, cooperating and securing fair treatment to improve the institutional environment of NGO's and promote social well-being."
India’s government faces tight vote
NEW DELHI, July 22 – India’s government faces a tight vote of confidence in parliament on Tuesday that will decide the fate of a civil nuclear cooperation deal with the United States and could trigger a snap election.
The vote pits the Congress-led coalition that negotiated the deal against its former communist allies and opposition parties led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The result is far too close to call, obscured by a flurry of last-minute horse-trading as both sides try to attract the support of smaller, regional or caste-based parties.
If the government falls there will probably be an election this year. It is also likely to lead to the scrapping of the civilian nuclear agreement and throw economic policy into limbo just as inflation rises to a 13-year-high.
[Nuclear deal]
Nuclear arms debate leaves Indian government on verge of collapse
Randeep Ramesh in Delhi The Guardian, Tuesday July 22, 2008
Article history
The Indian government and the much-vaunted nuclear deal it negotiated with George Bush in 2006 were last night on the brink of collapse after a bruising debate on a vote of confidence in parliament.
The vote, due today, is so finely balanced that several infirm MPs will be brought in from hospital. Jailed parliamentarians, some convicted of murder, have gained temporary release to attend.
[Nuclear deal]
Indian Legislators Begin Key Debate
U.S. Nuclear Deal Hangs in Balance
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 22, 2008; Page A10
NEW DELHI, July 21 -- Indian lawmakers on Monday began a two-day debate whose outcome will decide the fate not only of the beleaguered government but also of the contentious civilian nuclear agreement with the United States.
The debate precedes a vote of confidence in the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. If Singh loses the vote Tuesday, a national election could be called in November, six months ahead of schedule.
Indian coalition to chase every vote
By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi
Published: July 20 2008 18:59 | Last updated: July 20 2008 18:59
India’s C meongress party is frantically lobbying key parliament members to try to shore up support for its coalition government, amid concerns that it may not survive a crucial confidence vote over a controversial nuclear energy deal with the US.
With the parliamentary vote – expected Tuesday – likely to be decided by a razor-thin margin of a few votes, both the Congress and rival parties are involved in last-minute wheeling and dealing to woo independent legislators, small parties, and defectors.
[Nuclear deal]
Closer Ties With the United States Could Cost India’s Prime Minister His Government
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: July 20, 2008
NEW DELHI — A deepening friendship with the Bush administration has pushed the elected government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the brink of its own demise. Now, with a confidence vote in Parliament scheduled to begin this week, the government’s scramble to stay in power and its rivals’ efforts to oust it have set off an intense and often brazen round of political bargaining.
The confidence vote appears to be extremely close for Mr. Singh’s Congress Party-led coalition government, and the stakes high. If the government wins a majority of the 543-member Parliament, it will be permitted to remain in power until its five-year term ends next May. If it loses, national elections will be scheduled sooner — not an inviting prospect for an incumbent government troubled by rising food and fuel costs
[India US] [Nuclear deal]
Across China, Security Instead Of Celebration
Police Crack Down on 'Hostile Forces,' Apply New Safety Measures
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 19, 2008; Page A01
YENGISHAHAR, China -- Shortly after dawn on July 9, the local government here bused several thousand students and office workers into a public square and lined them up in front of a vocational school. As the spectators watched, witnesses said, three prisoners were brought out. Then, an execution squad fired rifles at the three point-blank, killing them on the spot.
The young men had been convicted of having connections to terrorist plots, which authorities said were part of a campaign aimed at disrupting the Beijing Olympics by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, an underground separatist organization here in the vast Xinjiang region of western China. The group has long fought for independence on behalf of the region's Muslim Uighur inhabitants.
[Separatism] [Olympics] [Terrorism] [China confrontation]
Further liberalization may be key to economic revival
Publication Date:07/17/2008 S
Inflation, triggered by rising oil and food prices, is one of the most serious economic problems facing world governments. Several meetings have been held among world leaders since late last year to resolve the issue, but to no avail. The just concluded summit of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations, on whose outcome many had placed high hopes, achieved nothing more than acknowledging the seriousness of the issue. Participating leaders simply gave warnings and urged members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase oil production in the hope that fuel prices would drop accordingly.
n less than two months, the newly installed administration not only released an economic stimulus package, but also implemented a series of measures that centered on improving cross-strait ties and enhanced Taiwan's position as a regional hub.
Economics Minister Yiin Chii-ming said at a media conference last week that the ministry anticipated, by the end of July, scrapping the regulation on local businesses investing more than 40 percent of their total asset value in mainland China. President Ma Ying-jeou also told visiting U.S.-based Applied Materials Inc. Chief Executive Officer Michael Splinter that if the United States can permit chipmaker Intel to set up a manufacturing base in mainland China, further liberalization on mainland investment for Taiwan's chipmakers should be "reasonable and necessary."
[Straits]
Nuclear Brinksmanship
Thursday, Jul. 17, 2008 By JYOTI THOTTAM/NEW DELHI
Even in the cacophony of Indian politics, there is one thing that everyone seems to agree on: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has absolute faith in his country's controversial civilian nuclear deal with the U.S. So unshakable is his commitment to the agreement, which would give India access to U.S. technology to help slake India's soaring demand for electricity, that Singh has bet his political future on it. "It's completely personal for him," says Prem Shankar Jha, a columnist for New Delhi's Outlook magazine. "The Prime Minister is determined to do this."
[Nuclear deal] [India US]
Look Who's Talking
18 Jul 2008, 0117 hrs IST
The Bush administration has repeatedly stated that the military option is not off the table in dealing with Iran if it embarks on a programme of building nuclear weapons.
But there's one option Washington has resolutely kept off the table so far: direct diplomacy with Tehran.
The announcement that it will be sending a high-ranking diplomat - undersecretary of state William Burns - to attend nuclear negotiations with Iran scheduled to be held in Geneva this Saturday, is a sign that Washington is thawing its hardline stance.
A rapprochement between the US and Iran would also improve Indian flexibility in dealing with the US.
Those who oppose the India-US nuclear deal, for example, often do so because they fear that it will come in the way of a working relationship with Iran. That particular bogey can be taken care of once the relationship between the US and
Iran starts to improve.
[Nuclear deal] [India US]
BJP: it’s a mockery of Manmohan’s assurances
Neena Vyas
Safeguards accord doesn’t recognise India as weapons state
Yashwant Sinha
NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said the draft safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency “has made a mockery of the assurances that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has repeatedly given to the nation [in Parliament].”
[Nuclear deal] [India US]
Olympic Security Collaboration
By Drew Thompson
July 17th, 2008
Drew Thompson, Director of China Studies and a Starr senior fellow at the Nixon Center, writes, “However, a successfully managed Olympics will ensure China’s continued willingness to open its markets to the outside world and follow a progressive, constructive foreign policy. Even though some U.S. experts engaging the Chinese may feel that the level of collaboration with Chinese counterparts does not compare favorably with previous event organizers, there are no indications that the Beijing Games will not be safe. A positive Beijing Games outcome would ultimately benefit all global citizens in keeping with the Olympic spirit.”
Symbolism Tops Substance in U.S.-India Nuclear Agreement
Interviewee:
Leonard S. Spector, Deputy Director, Monterey Institute of International Studies' James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
Interviewer:
Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor
July 15, 2008
Leonard S. Spector, a longtime expert in nuclear nonproliferation and head of the Washington office of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, says there probably is not enough time for the U.S.-India Nuclear Agreement to be approved in the remaining months of the Bush administration. He says the accord has little merit in the nuclear field, but does hold out the possibility of a symbolic improvement in U.S.-India relations.
This is a much debated matter. I would say that for the United States there's not much inherent to the agreement itself that makes a whole lot of difference. In other words, I believe we're unlikely to sell many nuclear reactors to India. There are other vendors that are more likely to do so. The Russians, for example, already have a couple of reactors under construction in India. And they're going to have a leg up for that reason. The French are also very active. Whether the United States will wind up making any such sales is very much up in the air. The real reason for the agreement on the American side, I believe, is to shore up relations with India and to establish our close relationship for the future. The agreement carries considerable symbolism and I'd say that's even more important than any business that may be obtained by American vendors.
[Nuclear deal] [India US]
Editorial: Canada needs to say no to US-India nuclear deal
Wed, July 16 2008
Indian-PM-Manmohan-SinghUranium miners from Canada’s northwest to the Australian outback are rubbing their hands with glee as the United States pushes for a nuclear deal with India.
Coming off one of their worst years, the deal will boost uranium demand worldwide and experts say the price will rise as fast as oil this year.
Canada is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and is being asked to sanction the deal.
The deal, being pushed by outgoing U.S. President George Bush, will make billions for the countries involved in the form of uranium exports, reactor sales and technology transfers.
It will also make this world a more dangerous place.
India is a nuclear maverick. It has betrayed Canada before and this deal will trigger another dangerous arms race with its volatile neighbour, Pakistan.
[NPT] [Nuclear deal]
Whining about a good deal
17 Jul, 2008, 0309 hrs IST, ET Bureau
As MPs from across the political spectrum brace up for the crucial trust vote being sought by the UPA over the nuclear deal, much fuss is being made by the left parties and the BJP on the nitty-gritties of the draft nuclear safeguards agreement sent by India to the IAEA.
The BJP says it will renegotiate the agreement if it comes to power. Politically, the party’s stance is the UPA has compromised India’s military nuclear programme. However, none other than Brajesh Mishra, national security advisor during the NDA regime, has gone on record saying the deal enables India to carry on with its military programme as well.
[Nuclear deal]
The final countdown for India
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - India's ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will face a crucial confidence vote early next week that will decide the fate not only of the government but also the India-United States civilian nuclear deal. If the government loses the vote, the country faces early elections and the nuclear deal will probably be scuttled.
The Congress-led UPA government was reduced to a minority on July 8 when the four-party left front withdrew its support to the ruling coalition. While the government's circulation of the draft safeguards agreement among the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)board members was the immediate provocation for the left's decision to pull the plug, the larger reason is its opposition to the nuclear deal itself and the undue US influence
on Indian foreign policy that it allegedly engenders.
[Nuclear deal][India US]
N-deal binds India as non-nuclear state in perpetuity: BJP
Mon, Jul 14 10:37 PM
New Delhi, July 14 (PTI) The BJP today alleged that the IAEA draft agreement shows that India would be bound as a non-nuclear weapon state in perpetuity and said the US was pushing the deal through as it would bring India under the non-proliferation regime. "In his address to the Lok Sabha on July 29, 2005, the Prime Minister said we shall undertake the same responsibilities and obligations as the US. We expect the same rights and the benefits as the US. And India will never accept discrimination," senior BJP leader Arun Shourie told reporters here.
[Nuclear deal]
N-deal may come with strings attached
Seema Guha
Thursday, July 17, 2008 04:02 IST
Western diplomats are unsure of what may be demanded of India to clinch it
NEW DELHI: Some members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) with strong non-proliferation domestic lobbies are likely to ask India for certain concessions before granting it a clean exemption to become a part of the international nuclear commerce, Western diplomats in the capital said.
India may not find it difficult to get the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency to okay the safety agreement it has finalized, but the going may be tougher at the 45- member NSG meeting.
There are a group of 10 to 12 member states, who are not happy about rewarding a country, which has consistently remained outside the international non-proliferation regime and carried out a clandestine weapons programme. Most of these countries, especially the Scandinavians, are trying to appease their domestic constituencies need to show that India is also conceding to their demands. As such, most non-proliferation activists believe New Delhi has got far too much from the Bush administration.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT]
Karat blames PM and the Congress for the collapse of coalition
Kolkata, Jul 15 (PTI) CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat today squarely blamed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress for the "collapse" of the UPA-Left coalition for approaching the IAEA to move ahead on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
"The Prime Minister and the Congress are responsible for the collapse of the (UPA-Left) arrangement that helped the installation of the secular government at the Centre by moving ahead on the nuclear deal", Karat said in a bylined article published in the party's mouthpiece "Ganashakti" here today.
He said that the Left parties had withdrawn support to the UPA government as "the Left can never compromise on such an important issue in which the involvement of American imperialism is so explicit".
Karat also said that Left parties' opposition to the nuclear deal has no similarity with that of BJP on the issue.
He said that BJP's opposition to the nuclear deal was confined to only one aspect that India's capability to produce nuclear weapons would be compromised. "BJP has accepted the other conditions of nuclear deal", he said.
"BJP is not opposed to the strategic agreement with America and tying up with that country on foreign policy", he said.
The CPI(M) is opposing the nuclear deal because the party feels that the move is a part of a conspiracy to bind India into a strategic relationship with the US, Karat said adding "the partnership has political, military and economic connotations". PTI
[Nuclear deal]
Threat of Military Attack on Iran
July 15, 2008
Press Statement
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
Threat of Military Attack on Iran
The grave concern expressed by the Government about statement from Israel and the United States threatening military action against Iran is timely. While the Ministry of External Affairs has taken note of the imminent threat of military attack by Israel and the United States on Iran, this concern would have been credible only if the UPA government had not helped Israel’s military capabilities.
In January this year, ISRO launched the Israeli spy satellite TecSar. This advanced satellite produced by Israel and the United States jointly is being used to conduct surveillance of Iran. If there is a military attack by Israel on Iran, the TecSar facilities will be invaluable.
If the Manmohan Singh government is really concerned about the military attack on Iran, it should forthwith cancel the launch of two more satellites in this series. It should forthwith stop all military collaboration with Israel.
[India US] [Iran]
Left Will Not Compromise
Prakash Karat
As the time for the ninth meeting of the UPA-Left Committee on the nuclear deal approached, the country was plunged into a political crisis once again on the future of the nuclear deal. What is the cause for this ongoing crisis?
The answer lies squarely in the prime minister's renewed bid to go to the IAEA for seeking the approval of the Board of Governors on the text of the Safeguards Agreement. This is an essential step for taking the Indo-US nuclear deal forward and for operationalising the 123 Agreement.
The CPI(M) and the Left parties have consistently opposed the nuclear deal on the basis that the Hyde Act on which the 123 Agreement is based nullifies all the assurances given by the prime minister in August 2006 in parliament. The nuclear deal has wide-ranging ramifications for India's foreign policy and security affairs.
It is astonishing that the UPA government and the Congress leadership have sought to push through a strategic alliance with the United States when it knows very well that the Left will never be party to this. The conflict began with the signing of the Defence Framework Agreement in June 2005 and the struggle of the Left to prevent such a strategic alliance cemented through the nuclear deal has been waged for the last three years.
[Nuclear deal]
Left Withdraws Support From Manmohan Singh Govt
THE Left parties --- the CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc --- have withdrawn support from the Manmohan Singh government. At 12 o’clock on Wednesday, July 9, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas and RSP general secretary T J Chandrachoodan met the president of India, Mrs Pratibha Patil, and handed her over separate letters intimating withdrawal of their respective parties’ support from the government. Next, they also handed her over a joint letter, urging her that, in view of the withdrawal of support by the Left, she must ask the Manmohan Singh government to get a confidence vote in Lok Sabha soon.
The Left parties had already announced the support withdrawal a day before, on July 8. In a press conference aboard his plane on his way to the G-8 summit in Japan, the prime minister had announced that his government would “soon” go to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board for an endorsement of the safeguards agreement prepared by the IAEA Secretariat. The Left took this announcement as an expression of the government’s readiness to go ahead for operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal, without caring for the UPA-Left coordination committee to reach a conclusion.
[Nuclear deal]
What controls the Indo-US nuclear deal?
15 Jul, 2008, 0224 hrs IST, Shiv Visvanathan,
The politics of the nuclear deal in India was turning horribly repetitive. At one end, we had our Prime Minister, almost echolalic in his protestations, and at the other the Left immaculately ideological in a throw back role to the sixties. In between were a cast of characters from Mayawati and Chandrababu Naidu to Sonia Gandhi and chorus of defence experts that could easily lay claims to a place in a Russian novel. The repetitiveness moved to redundancy as the play moved from the comic to the insufferable, when a sudden gestalt switch brought about a transformation.
The ideological machismo of a Prakash Karat suddenly wilted losing out to the wheeler-dealing of an Amar Singh. An old set of cliches led to new ones, both hiding a deep change in the political drama. How is one to read it?
[Nuclear deal]
Parties mobilise public opinion on deal
Atiq Khan
LUCKNOW: Irrespective of the outcome of the trial of strength in the Lok Sabha, political parties in Uttar Pradesh are looking beyond July 22 on the nuclear deal issue. With the general elections less than a year away, for the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Left parties public perception mattered the most as they mobilised public opinion on the agreement with the U.S.
The Left launched a nationwide campaign against the deal on Monday and the Congress high command asked the party general secretaries and State managers to clear misconceptions about it.
[Nuclear deal]
Agreement will not impinge on strategic programme: PM
New Delhi (PTI): In an expression of confidence that Government will win the July 22 trust vote in Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said that people understand the significance of the initiatives taken by it and "endorse them
[Nuclear deal]
"Accord will help end nuclear apartheid"
Special correspondent
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the proposed safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency "will enable India to cooperate in civil nuclear energy development with all the 45 member countries of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, including USA, Russia, France and China," according to a press release by the Prime Minister’s media advisor.
Briefing a group of selected journalists from the electronic media here, Dr. Singh referred to "opportunities for international cooperation in civil nuclear energy, in addressing the challenge of energy security and high technology development."
[Nuclear deal]
Leader Article: What's In It For Us?
16 Jul 2008, 0000 hrs IST, Chandan Mitra
Does India need a civilian nuclear energy agreement with the US? Is this the best deal we could have got? Why is the Bush administration trying so hard to push India into signing this deal? Has the prime minister gone about it in the best possible way? Are we bartering away our nuclear sovereignty in the process, thereby endangering our goal to maintain a credible nuclear deterrent?
These are some of the key questions that needed to be satisfactorily answered in the context of the ongoing controversy that has snowballed to a point where it threatens the stability of the Manmohan Singh government.
[Nuclear deal]
In Indian Case, Line Between Classes Is Drawn With Blood
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, July 16, 2008; Page A14
NEW DELHI -- When in doubt, blame the servants.
That's what detectives did after they found a teenage girl dead in her bedroom in a posh suburb of New Delhi, her throat slit, her body in a pool of blood.
Since a household servant was nowhere to be found, he must have killed her and taken off, police reasoned.
No evidence was collected, Indian newspapers reported. No police tape closed off the scene of the May 16 killing.
Instead, police announced a manhunt for Yam Prasad Banjade, 45, also known as Hemraj. They dispatched an elite team to track him down in neighboring Nepal. His face was displayed in newspapers and on television.
IAEA sets date for India proposal
India's Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, located 30km from Mumbai (Bombay)
India would get access to US civilian nuclear technology
The world nuclear regulatory body will meet on 1 August to consider India's plan for safeguarding its civilian nuclear facilities.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) approval of the plan is a key condition for putting into effect a nuclear deal between India and US.
Left-wing parties in India have pulled out of the governing coalition in protest against the deal.
The government says it is needed to meet soaring energy demands.
India is under pressure from Washington to sign the accord before the US presidential elections in November.
India has to sign a "safeguards agreement" with the IAEA before it can go ahead with the deal.
The agreement will open up India's key civilian nuclear reactors to UN inspections.
[Nuclear deal]
India in Afghanistan: a presence under pressure
Kanchan Lakshman
The bombing of India's Kabul embassy is part of a pattern of assaults whose source lies in Pakistan, says Kanchan Lakshman in New Delhi.
11 - 07 - 2008
A suicide car-bombing in front of the Indian embassy in Kabul on the morning of 7 July 2008 killed at least fifty-four persons and wounded more than 140. The blast also destroyed cars and shops outside the building. It seems that the suicide-bomber launched the attack after trailing two embassy vehicles as they were entering the premises. The highly guarded embassy is located on a busy street in central Kabul near Afghanistan's interior ministry.
t is evident that the Taliban / al-Qaida combine and the transnational jihadi groups based within Pakistan remain the principal instruments of Islamabad's response to India's deepening cooperation with Afghanistan; at the same time, ISI-supported terrorist groups remain Pakistan's principal tool of policy-projection in the Indian province of Jammu & Kashmir. Despite the country's rising internal difficulties and contradictions, the Pakistani inner establishment's deep engagement with Islamist extremism and terrorism is far from over.
MAD: Ten Years of the Bomb and the Obstacles to Peace in South Asia
Zia Mian and M. V. Ramana
As the current Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh risks his administration on a bid to override massive public opposition to entering into a nuclear power deal with the United States, hyped as an "historic" accord that will emancipate India's economy and boost its international status, Japan Focus examines a decade of India-Pakistan maneuvering for advantage in the South Asian nuclear sweepstakes.
China Draws Bosses, Not Just for Games
By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
Chaebols usually tend not to be seen mingling amongst themselves, but next month in Beijing, accidental rendezvous may come more frequent with a bunch of top executives flying to the Olympics-hosting neighbor at overlapping periods doing similar things in close proximity.
Lotte Group Vice Chairman Shin Dong-bin, Shinsegae Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Yoon-woo, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Seol Young-heung are among those who will be on a Beijing-bound flight at the end of this month for one key mission ? Olympic marketing.
S.Korea is China's Least Favorite Neighbor - Survey
Chinese people like South Korea the least of all of their neighbors, according to the results of a survey released Monday. It is unusual for South Korea to rank ahead of Japan as China's most unpopular neighbor.
In the survey of 12,000 Chinese people over the past four months by the International Herald Leader, a newspaper published by China's official Xinhua News Agency, 40.1 percent of respondents said they dislike South Korea the most. Japan came in second place with 30.2 percent of the vote. The most-liked neighbor was Pakistan with 13.2 percent followed by Russia and Japan, the newspaper said.
In September, market researcher Millward Brown surveyed 1,000 Korean adults on their favorite neighboring country. The majority -- 60.8 percent -- said the U.S. China ranked second with 44.0 percent followed by Russia with 41.4 percent and Japan with 35.6 percent.
RBS aims to retain holding in Bank of China
By Sundeep Tucker and Peter Thal Larsen
Published: July 13 2008 23:33 | Last updated: July 13 2008 23:33
Royal Bank of Scotland has ruled out any sale of its stake in Bank of China, in spite of its capital difficulties, and intends to press ahead with a two-pronged Chinese expansion strategy, according to one of the UK bank’s senior executives
[Globalisation]
China tries to ease Olympic worries about tainted food
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
CHANGPING, China — Guards carefully monitor the perimeter of Lin Yuan's farm, where carrots, peppers, tomatoes and other vegetables will ripen just in time for the hungry athletes arriving for the Beijing Summer Olympics.
"What is special now is the security," Lin said as he strolled out of a greenhouse and pointed to sentries at the farm's entry gate.
Food safety is a sensitive subject as China hosts the Olympics. It weathered global concerns last year about the safety of its exports, amid scandal over tainted pet food and toothpaste, and now China is striving to ensure that the food served to 16,000 athletes in the Olympic Village is healthy and free of contaminants.
Copyediting? Ship the Work Out to India
Not far from New Delhi, Mindworks now has eight overseas clients, and it's mounting a big effort to go after more U.S. publications
by Nandini Lakshman
In a squat, gray building in Noida, a leading outsourcing destination 15 miles from New Delhi, is the headquarters of Mindworks Global Media. Here, 90 young men and women peer into their computers, editing copy, designing and laying out pages, and even reporting over the phone. Mindworks isn't a new publication. It's a company to which media groups in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.—including the Miami Herald and South China Morning Post—outsource work that journalists and copyeditors usually do. The Mindworks staff works two to three shifts a day, seven days a week. Tony Joseph, 46, an editor-turned-entrepreneur, is Mindworks' founder and chief executive. He sometimes drops by at 6 a.m. to see his employees, just when U.S. clients are putting their papers to bed.
Mindworks has been handling outsourcing assignments from non-Indian publishers for four years. It expects plenty more business as the cost-cutting in U.S. and European print media grinds on. Some Western publishers do their outsourcing in-house—Thomson Reuters (TRI), for instance, has moved basic Wall Street reporting on U.S., European, and Gulf equities to a new bureau in Bangalore.
[Offshoring] [Services]
The Driving Force Behind China's Chery
The chief of the No. 1 Chinese automaker has global aspirations. Exports to Italy, Egypt, and Russia are up, and there's talk of a Volvo bid
by Dexter Roberts
He's a local boy made good. The son of farmers, Yin Tongyao, 45, hails from the Anhui Province village of Liuji, Chaohu. That's just 36 miles from Wuhu, where in 1997, Yin helped found Chery Automobile. Now chairman, Yin has used his engineering knowledge, entrepreneurial energy, and marketing flair to make Chery China's No. 1 domestic automaker and one with global aspirations. On July 6, Chinese business magazine Caijing reported that Chery is considering buying (BusinessWeek.com, 7/7/08) Ford Motor's (F) Swedish Volvo unit for $4.4 billion. Ford and Chery both declined to comment.
[Auto] [Globalisation]
Tibet torch reaches top of Jade Mountain
Taiwanese and Tibetan activists carried a "freedom torch" to the peak of Taiwan's tallest mountain July 6 as a way of reminding the international community of the need for action to bring an end to mainland China's occupation of Tibet.
The 21-member team's effort to scale the 3,952-meter Jade Mountain and unfurl a Tibetan flag was part of the Tibetan Freedom Torch Relay, which began March 10 in Olympia, Greece under the watchful eye of Greek police and 20 Chinese mainland government officials. The torch has traveled through 30 major cities in Europe, North America and Asia.
U.S. analyst's case hints at breadth of Chinese espionage
By Neil A. Lewis Published: July 10, 2008
WASHINGTON: Gregg Bergersen was a navy veteran who liked to gamble on occasion but spent far more time worrying about how to earn some serious money after he left his career as an analyst at the Defense Department.
At 51 and supporting a wife and a child in the Virginia suburbs, he wondered how he could get himself cast in that distinctly Washington role that many Pentagon types dream of: a rewarding post-retirement perch at one of the hundreds of military-related companies that surround the capital and flourish with lucrative government contracts and contacts.
Bergersen believed he had found what he was seeking when he was introduced to Tai Shen Kuo, a native of Taiwan, who had lived in New Orleans for more than 30 years. Kuo, an entrepreneur who imported furniture from China, was active enough in civic affairs to have been named to a state advisory board on international trade. He told Bergersen that he was developing a military consulting company.
China shoots dead five ‘holy war’ militants
By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Published: July 9 2008 19:12 | Last updated: July 9 2008 19:12
China claimed on Wednesday that its police killed five members of a group seeking to wage “holy war” in mainly Muslim Xinjiang just days after a top security official said separatists from the far-western region were one of the most pressing threats to next month’s Olympic Games.
It is likely to fuel efforts to tighten security in the capital ahead of the Games. Xi Jinping, the vice-president, said security was the priority in Olympic preparations as police announced plans for hundreds of checkpoints on roads to the capital.
The scale of the danger posed by Xinjiang-related terrorism to the Games remains impossible to gauge
[Separatism] [Terrorism]
Afghan Bombing Sends Stark Message to India
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: July 9, 2008
NEW DELHI — The suicide bombing on Monday outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul was the latest and most audacious attack in recent months on Indian interests in Afghanistan, where New Delhi, since helping to topple the Taliban in 2001, has staked its largest outside aid package ever.
India has poured unprecedented amounts of money and people into the reconstruction of Afghanistan, a vital passage into resource-rich Central Asia. It has spent more than $750 million, building a strategic road across the country’s southwest, training teachers and civil servants, and working on erecting a new seat of the national Parliament.
That engagement has come at a mounting cost to the 4,000 Indian citizens working in Afghanistan. In the last two and a half years, an Indian driver for the road reconstruction team was found decapitated, an engineer was abducted and killed, and seven members of the paramilitary force guarding Indian reconstruction crews were killed.
Here in the Indian capital the message of the bombing was explicit: India, get out of Afghanistan.
Congress May Not Pass U.S.-India Nuclear Pact
New Delhi Could Turn to Other Nations
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 9, 2008; Page A10
India's civil nuclear agreement with the United States may have cleared a key hurdle in New Delhi this week, but it appears unlikely to win final approval in the U.S. Congress this year, raising the possibility that India could begin nuclear trade with other countries even without the Bush administration's signature deal, according to administration officials and congressional aides.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has struggled to keep his coalition government intact over the controversial deal to give New Delhi access to U.S. nuclear technology for the first time since it conducted a nuclear test in 1974. This week, he secured an agreement with the Samajwadi Party to back the deal, giving him enough support to retain his majority even as the Communists bolted over fears that the pact would infringe on India's sovereignty.
[Nuclear deal] [Dissension] [Decline]
Oil price shock means China is at risk of blowing up
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 2:00am BST 08/07/2008
The great oil shock of 2008 is bad enough for us. It poses a mortal threat to the whole economic strategy of emerging Asia.
Oil price shock means China is at risk of blowing up
An oil rig in China's Bohai Sea
The manufacturing revolution of China and her satellites has been built on cheap transport over the past decade. At a stroke, the trade model looks obsolete.
No surprise that Shanghai's bourse is down 56pc since October, one of the world's most spectacular bear markets in half a century.
Asia's intra-trade model is a Ricardian network where goods are shipped in a criss-cross pattern to exploit comparative advantage. Profit margins are wafer-thin.
Products are sent to China for final assembly, then shipped again to Western markets. The snag is obvious. The cost of a 40ft container from Shanghai to Rotterdam has risen threefold since the price of oil exploded.
[Globalisation]
Exit by the left pushes India closer to poll
By Amy Yee in New Delhi and Daniel Dombey in Washington
Published: July 8 2008 09:31 | Last updated: July 9 2008 01:52
India moved closer to early elections as leftwing allies of the ruling coalition vowed to withdraw support from the government over a nuclear energy pact with the US.
The leftwing parties, which claim the nuclear deal would leave India beholden to Washington, are expected to call for a vote of no confidence in the United Progressive Alliance government.
[Nuclear deal]
Left-wing parties storm out of Indian coalition
8 July
NEW DELHI (AFP) — A bloc of Indian left-wing and communist parties announced Tuesday they were pulling out of the country's coalition government in protest against a nuclear energy deal with the United States.
Their decision, however, was not expected to cause the collapse of the Congress-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who last week managed to win support from a regional party to avoid the prospect of early elections.
Marxist leader Prakash Karat told reporters in New Delhi that the "time has come" for India's leftists to bail out of the coalition in the wake of Singh's decision to push ahead with implementing the controversial pact.
[Nuclear deal]
Now it's war against India in Afghanistan
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - The suicide bomber who crashed an explosive-laden car into the Indian Embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday not only killed 41 people and injured more than 140, he sent a powerful message to Delhi that its significant presence and growing influence in Afghanistan through its reconstruction projects are now in the firing line.
Among the dead were four Indians, including Defense Attache Brigadier R D Mehta, diplomat Venkateswara Rao and two guards at the embassy, who were personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police - a paramilitary outfit. The attack is said to be among the deadliest in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
Troops in Afghanistan would push India into the Afghan quagmire. This might be what the ISI was gunning for when they attacked the Indian embassy on Monday.
Bush pushes US-India nuclear deal
By DEB RIECHMANN – 7 hours ago
9 July
TOYAKO, Japan (AP) — President Bush defended a languishing deal his administration negotiated to sell India nuclear fuel and technology, saying he reassured India's prime minister that the pact was important for both countries despite heavy opposition on both sides.
Bush's meeting on Wednesday with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was one of a series of one-and-one sessions the president scheduled on the final day of the three-day G-8 summit of economic powers.
"I respect the prime minister a lot," Bush said, speaking with reporters after their meeting. "I also respect India a lot. And I think it's very important that the United States continues to work with our friend to develop not only a new strategic relationship, but a relationship that addresses some of the world's problems. We talked about the India-U.S. nuclear deal — how important that is for our respective countries."
if ratified by Washington and New Delhi, the pact would reverse three decades of U.S. policy by allowing the sale of atomic fuel and technology to India, which has not signed international nonproliferation accords but has tested nuclear weapons. In return, India, would open its civilian reactors to international inspections.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT]
President Bush Meets with Prime Minister Singh of India at G8 Summit
Windsor Hotel Toya Resort and Spa
Toyako, Japan
8:23 A.M. (Local)
PRESIDENT BUSH: Prime Minister Singh and I just had a typical conversation among friends. We talked about common opportunities, world problems, and we did it in a spirit of respect -- and it was easy for me to do because I respect the Prime Minister a lot. I also respect India a lot, and I think it's very important that the United States continues to work with our friends to develop not only a new strategic relationship, but a relationship that addresses some of the world's problems.
We talked about the India-U.S. nuclear deal, and how important that is for our respective countries.
[Nuclear deal]
FACTBOX-Scheduled events in India over U.S. nuclear deal
08 Jul 2008 04:51:11 GMT
Source: Reuters
July 8 (Reuters) - The Indian government faces a crucial week as its communist allies plan to withdraw support if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presses ahead with a civilian nuclear deal with the United States.
But the government has sealed the support of the regional Samajwadi Party to secure a parliamentary majority if the left withdraws.
The following are key events and meetings planned this week that could decide the fate of the government.
Tuesday, July 8: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and three other left parties meet to decide when to withdraw their support for the government. They will also discuss if they are interested to meet the Congress leaders on July 10.
Meeting scheduled to start at 11:30 local (0600 GMT)
Wednesday, July 9: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets United States President George Bush at the G8 Summit in Japan, for bilateral talks. Singh could then formally announce he will go ahead with the nuclear deal.
Thursday, July 10: Meeting between the communist parties and the government, which could end with the two formally snapping ties.
India confident of Chinese support in NSG on N-deal
8 Jul 2008, 2105 hrs IST,PTI
SAPPORA (JAPAN): India on Tuesday expressed confidence that there will be no "difficulty" from the Chinese side when New Delhi's case for exemption to conduct nuclear commerce goes before the NSG as part of the process of implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal. ( Watch )
This was the impression the Indian side gained after a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Hu Jintao of China that took place this morning on the sidelines of the G8 summit currently on here.
Briefing reporters on the meeting, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said the Prime Minister mentioned India's civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the US.
"As mentioned by the Prime Minister yesterday we don't anticipate that this issue will be a difficulty between us. The Chinese side expressed its willingness to cooperate with India in civil use of the nuclear energy."
[Nuclear deal]
Bomb found on Afghan bus carrying Indians
9 Jul 2008, 1200 hrs IST,AFP
HEART: A bomb was found on a bus transporting 12 Indian road workers in Afghanistan on Tuesday, a governor said, a day after a suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul killed 41 people.
The workers, including engineers, noticed a “suspicious package” on the bus on as they were travelling to work in the southwestern province of Nimroz, provincial governor Ghulam Dastgir Azad said.
Azad blamed Taliban militants for the attempted attack on workers for the Indian Border Road Organisation which is working on a key road in the province's Khashrod area.
There have been several Taliban attacks on men building the road and about 10 Indian nationals working on the project have been killed over the past few years.
An Indian engineer was killed in Taliban suicide bombing in the area in June and two other Indian road workers died in a similar attack in April. [Afghanistan]
Singh, Bush Affirm U.S.-India Nuclear Deal Commitment
(Update2)
By Bibhudatta Pradhan and Archana Chaudhary
Enlarge Image/Details
July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President George W. Bush reaffirmed their commitment to a joint nuclear energy accord that would help alleviate the south Asian nation's chronic power shortages.
``We talked about the India-U.S. nuclear deal and how important that is for our respective countries,'' Bush said after meeting Singh at the Group of Eight industrial nations summit in Toyako, Japan today. ``It was a really good meeting.''
India needs a renewed push from the U.S. to win over the International Atomic Energy Agency and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to get access to technology and fuel. The 2005 U.S. agreement, held up by political opposition in India, would allow the country to import nuclear materials without joining the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
``If you have a heavyweight superpower to shepherd the Indian nuclear deal through recalcitrant members of the IAEA and even more so the NSG, that's the Indian hope,'' said Mahesh Rangarajan, a New Delhi-based independent political analyst. ``The U.S. is crucial to get this deal through.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT]
Suicide Car Bomb Hits Afghan Capital
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 7, 2008
Filed at 2:54 a.m. ET
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A suicide car bomb exploded outside the Indian Embassy in central Kabul on Monday, killing 28 people and wounding 141, officials said.
The massive bomb exploded near a row of metal turnstiles outside the embassy, where dozens of Afghan men line up every morning to apply for visas. The embassy is located on a busy, tree-lined street near Afghanistan's Interior Ministry in the city center.
Militants have frequently attacked Indian offices and projects around Afghanistan since launching an insurgency after the ouster of the Taliban at the end of the 2001.
Suicide car bomb hits India Embassy in Afghanistan
By Samar Zwak
Reuters
Monday, July 7, 2008; 2:30 AM
KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide car bomb hit two diplomatic vehicles entering the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Monday, killing or wounding at least 30 people, witnesses and Afghan media said.
Taliban insurgents have vowed to step up their campaign of suicide bombings this year to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government and drive out foreign forces.
The bomber struck just as two diplomatic vehicles were entering the embassy, said Danish Karokhil, the head of the independent Pajhwok news agency, whose offices are close by.
"The target was the diplomatic vehicles. They were trying to get inside the embassy when the suicide car bomber attacked them," he said.
New Life for the India Nuclear Pact
A test of an Indian ballistic missile in May. (India Defense Ministry Via Associated Press)
By Bill Emmott
Monday, July 7, 2008; Page A13
Less than a month ago, unnamed U.S. officials hit the front page of the Financial Times by indicating that the U.S.-India nuclear pact was "almost certainly dead." This past weekend the corpse suddenly twitched back to life, thanks to sharp political maneuvering by India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and his Congress Party. Now, the deal will almost certainly be signed by India's government -- putting the onus back on the United States to get it implemented.
For that to happen, Congress must stop trying to use the deal as leverage to force India to back the U.S. line on Iran.
[Nuclear deal]
India Makes Push on Nuclear Pact
By HEATHER TIMMONS and SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: July 5, 2008
NEW DELHI — India’s governing Congress Party has swapped coalition allies in a last-ditch effort to push through a nuclear deal with the United States.
The Congress Party is replacing its leftist allies, led by the Communist Party, with a coalition led by the Samajwadi, a North Indian socialist party. The Congress Party’s grip on India is weakening as inflation and fuel prices rise and the economy slows, and securing an ally is crucial to staying in power.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been a staunch supporter of the nuclear agreement with the United States, has been rushing to firm up support for the deal in India ahead of the Group of 8 summit meeting in Japan, which starts on Monday.
There, he is expected to meet with President Bush to discuss the arrangement, which would grant India access to American nuclear technology and atomic fuel in exchange for agreeing to international inspections of its reactors.
Mr. Yadav, the Samajwadi leader, has pushed for the rights of farmers and the underclass and favors limiting the use of the English language in government. The party, based in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, is made up mainly of Muslims and farmers.
[Nuclear deal]
‘Anti-China’ groups threaten Olympics
By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Published: July 4 2008 22:13 | Last updated: July 4 2008 22:13
A top Chinese security official has warned that “anti-China” forces and other hostile groups are intensifying efforts to sabotage next month’s Beijing Olympics.
The warning from Yang Huanning, executive vice-minister for public security, reflects concern among Chinese leaders about the possible disruption of an event in which they have invested enormous political capital.
It is also likely to further spur sweeping security measures in Beijing and other Olympic cities that some observers say could cast a chill over Games events.
Tougher implementation of visa rules in recent months has already sent the number of tourists arriving in the Chinese capital plummeting.
[China confrontation] [IM] [Tourism]
India's Economy Hits the Wall
Growth is slipping, stocks are down 40%, and foreign stock market investors are fleeing. Business blames the ruling coalition for failing to make reforms
by Manjeet Kripalani
Just six months ago, India was looking good. Annual growth was 9%, corporate profits were surging 20%, the stock market had risen 50% in 2007, consumer demand was huge, local companies were making ambitious international acquisitions, and foreign investment was growing. Nothing, it seemed, could stop the forward march of this Asian nation.
But stop it has. In the past month, India has joined the list of the wounded. The country is reeling from 11.4% inflation, large government deficits, and rising interest rates. Foreign investment is fleeing, the rupee is falling, and the stock market is down over 40% from the year's highs. Most economic forecasts expect growth to slow to 7%—a big drop for a country that needs to accelerate growth, not reduce it. "India has gone from hero to zero in six months," says Andrew Holland, head of proprietary trading at Merrill Lynch India (MER) in Mumbai. Many in India worry that the country's hard-earned investment-grade rating will soon be lost and that the gilded growth story has come to an end.
China: An Olympic Loss for Industry
Strict limits on production during the Games will be felt across the Mainland—and by consumers abroad
by Dexter Roberts and Chi-Chu Tschang
This Issue
July 14 & 21, 2008
Beijing - Hebei Taihang Cement has been on a roll lately. Its three Beijing plants have been running around the clock, churning out thousands of tons of cement needed to build venues such as the "Bird's Nest" stadium, where opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympic Games will be held on Aug. 8.
But the good times may be about to end. The government has ordered Taihang to shut down its Beijing operations for two months starting on July 20, until both the Olympics and the Paralympics (for handicapped athletes), slated to run from Sept. 6-17, are over. Its 400-plus employees will busy themselves with training courses and equipment repairs, and Taihang will see its cement output fall this year by 500,000 tons, or 9% of its annual capacity. If neighboring Hebei Province also orders cutbacks, as many expect, the damage could be even worse for Taihang—its headquarters and another big plant are located there.
Taihang isn't alone. In an effort to clear Beijing's murky skies for the 10,000 athletes and half-million foreign visitors expected for the Olympics, China is ordering broad restrictions on much of the capital's industry. Another measure will impose strict limits on the number of cars on the roads during the Games. And the industrial shutdown is likely to extend to a broad swath of northern China and other Olympics venues such as the industrial city of Shenyang, where some soccer matches will be played, and the port of Qingdao, home to sailing events.
The cost of going global for China's high-tech companies
Chinese technology companies are competing successfully on their home turf. Global markets may be another story, at least in the short run.
Stefan Albrecht, Ingo Beyer von Morgenstern, and Xiaoyu Xia
July 2008
Chinese high-tech and electronics companies are outgrowing the domestic market, improving their productivity, and forcefully defending the domestic consumer and corporate markets against foreign challengers. But our research also shows that most of these companies will have difficulty replicating these gains in other countries, where they must cater to very different customers; attract global talent; and confront higher development, sales and marketing, and labor costs.
[China competition] [Globalisation]
Bush eases equipment export ban for China Olympics
Mon Jun 30, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. weapons restrictions meant to keep firearms and other equipment out of China were eased on Monday so that athletes and television crews can use them during the Beijing Olympic Games.
President George W. Bush sent a notification to Congress that he had temporarily eased export restrictions to allow American firearms to be used by athletes competing in shooting events.
Bush also eased restrictions on the military gyroscopes in high-definition television camera systems used by U.S. filming crews.
"Licensing requirements remain in place for these exports and require review and approval on a case-by-case basis by the United States government," Bush said in a letter to Congress.
[Sanctions] [Bizarre]
China Opens New Talks With Dalai Lama
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: July 2, 2008
BEIJING — Chinese officials and senior envoys of the Dalai Lama opened their latest round of negotiations over Tibet on Tuesday, as international pressure for a breakthrough intensifies ahead of the Olympic Games.
China and Taiwan: friends through tourism
By Nelson Alcantara | Jun 25, 2008
What might have been difficult to imagine a few years back, has become a reality. Thanks to tourism, China and Taiwan can now call themselves friends. As minuscule a step as this may be in terms of the whole spectrum of China-Taiwan relations, when an Air China flight from Beijing lands in Taiwan on July 4, the world will certainly appreciate its significance.
Years and years of bickering have strained the relations between China and Taiwan, but it is apparent that both sides are looking forward to the future through tourism, proving once again that the importance of tourism goes far beyond economic gains. The latest move by China and Taiwan is a clear manifestation that civilized nations can look past their differences and open up to each other through tourism.
Air China will commence regular direct flights from Beijing to Taipei and Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The first flight, on an Airbus A330, will depart from Beijing Capital International Airport at 8:30 a.m. Beijing time and arrive at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 1:00 p.m.
[Straits] [Tourism]
Closer Economic Ties Benefit All Regions of China, United States
U.S. envoy welcomes rise of confident, peaceful and prosperous China
28 May 2008
Washington -- Closer U.S.-China economic cooperation benefits the development of all regions of China and the United States, not just political and economic centers, according to Alan Holmer, U.S. special envoy for China and the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED).
In a speech at Wuhan University in China released May 21 by the Department of the Treasury, Holmer said, “Free trade and investment between our two countries are in our fundamental mutual interests.”
Holmer acknowledged that this positive view is not universally held in China or the United States. Noting that there has been a rise of economic nationalism in both countries, he warned leaders against letting such sentiments constrain them from adopting policies that are in the long-term interests of both Americans and Chinese.
[Globalisation] [Protectionism]
China in Africa: Implications for U.S. Policy
Thomas J. Christensen, Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, James Swan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs
Statement Before the Subcommittee on African Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Washington, DC
June 5, 2008
[As Prepared Remarks]
Mr. Chairman, Senator Isakson, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to address the subject of China’s growing engagement with Africa and its ramifications for U.S. foreign policy.
[China confrontation]
Tibet to Re-open to Foreign Tourism
China says it will reopen Tibet to foreign tourists, after closing it during violent protests in March.
Chinese state media Tuesday quote regional tourism officials as saying the Tibet Autonomous Region will be opened to outsiders on Wednesday.
The Xinhua news agency reports that two Swedish tourists will arrive in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, on Wednesday and four tourists from Singapore will arrive on Sunday.
Daewoo to Sell All Burma Gas to China
Daewoo International said Monday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the China National Petroleum Corporation to sell all the natural gas it extracts from Burma to CNPC.
India's Young Spenders
Financially Independent and Lured by Ads, A Nontraditional Generation Embraces Credit
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 24, 2008; Page D01
MUMBAI Draped in a wedding sari and adorned with yellow gold necklaces and jangling red marriage bangles, a new bride sat demurely on a bed covered with flowers. In the dimly lit room, she handed a glass of milk to her groom in a flirty wedding-night ritual.
But in this popular and comical TV commercial, another hand suddenly emerged from the floor and grabbed the tumbler of milk, which was then passed to another hand, then another and another. They were all the hands of relatives sleeping in the same room, in accordance with India's traditional extended family system. When the milk, meant to seduce, finally reached the groom at the other end of the bedroom, he drank it and blew a kiss to his bride.
Then came the rub: "Cramped for space?" a voiceover boomed. The ad went on to tout easy credit lines for young couples seeking home loans.
The TV spot is just one example of how India's thriving advertising industry is targeting one of the world's youngest populations and largest markets. More than 70 percent of India's population of 1.15 billion is under 35. With the proliferation of outsourced technology and call-center jobs, a growing number are finding themselves with good salaries, few expenses and large disposable incomes.
China Invites Kim Jong-il to Olympics Opening
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during a recent Pyongyang visit to the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics on Aug.8 in Beijing, the Asahi Shimbun reported Sunday. The Japanese newspaper quoted a remark made Saturday by Taku Yamasaki, former deputy president of Prime Minster Yasuo Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party.
The Japanese weekly Shukan Bunshun reported that the objective of Xi’s visit to North Korea was to arrange a summit between Kim and U.S. President George W. Bush in Beijing, adding a personal letter from Chinese president Hu Jintao was delivered to Kim. Both South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Bush are to attend the opening ceremony. If Kim comes, both an inter-Korean summit and a North Korea-U.S. summit would be a possibility -- potentially an epochal breakthrough in the process of denuclearization of the North.
India’s Growth Outstrips Crops
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: June 22, 2008
JALANDHAR, India — With the right technology and policies, India could help feed the world. Instead, it can barely feed itself.
India’s supply of arable land is second only to that of the United States, its economy is one of the fastest growing in the world, and its industrial innovation is legendary. But when it comes to agriculture, its output lags far behind potential. For some staples, India must turn to already stretched international markets, exacerbating a global food crisis.
It was not supposed to be this way.
Can the U.S. Bring Jobs Back from China?
Pricey oil is dulling the mainland's edge in manufacturing. But American industry may not be ready to seize the opportunity
by Pete Engardio
June 30, 2008
Christina Lampe-Onnerud has a long-lasting, fast-charging battery for notebook computers that she believes will revolutionize the industry. Her company, Boston-Power, would like to make the batteries in the U.S., which she says is feasible despite high American wages.
But Lampe-Onnerud has had trouble finding anyone in the U.S. even to make a prototype, let alone manufacture the battery in bulk. China, by contrast, is home to more than 200 battery manufacturers. On visits to the mainland, Lampe-Onnerud toured dozens of factories with ample staff and laboratories, and none wanted the millions of dollars up front that one contract manufacturer in the U.S. had demanded. She recalls a negotiating session last year that started at 9 a.m. and ended with a midnight dinner. Despite parting with 30 unresolved questions, "at 9:00 the next morning, the entire management team was there with pressed white shirts and a PowerPoint presentation addressing every issue," she says. "That's how badly they wanted the business." In six months, Boston-Power was ramping up production in a 400-worker factory in Shenzhen.
This would seem to be a good time for an American manufacturing renaissance. The economics of global trade are starting to tilt back in favor of the U.S. to a degree unseen in a generation. Since 2002 the dollar has plunged by 30% against major world currencies and is falling against the yuan. Wages in China are rising 10% to 15% a year. And spiking oil prices are driving up shipping rates. The cost of sending a 40-foot container from Shanghai to San Diego has soared by 150%, to $5,500, since 2000. If oil hits $200 a barrel, that could reach $10,000, projects Toronto financial-services firm CIBC World Markets.
But as the experience of Boston-Power and countless companies like it shows, the map of global commerce can't be redrawn overnight.
[Offshoring]
Cross-strait ties take 'giant step' with flights
Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (front left) and mainland China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Yunlin shake hands to seal the landmark accords in Beijing June 13. (CNA)
Publication Date:06/20/2008
By Tso Lon-di
After just a day of talks, representatives from Taiwan and mainland China signed pacts last week that will officially allow more mainland tourists to visit the island with the commencement of direct weekend charter flights from July 4.
After a long period of uneasy silence between the ROC's Straits Exchange Foundation and the PRC's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, the new accords represent a significant breakthrough.
The two sides also agreed that topics for future discussion would include direct cargo flights, expanding the "mini-three-links" and cooperation on matters such as oil exploration, meteorological research, climate change and law enforcement.
[Straits]
Kim Jong Il Receives Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping
Pyongyang, June 18 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il on Wednesday received Xi Jinping, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice-president of the People's Republic of China, on a visit to the DPRK and his entourage.
Present there were First Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Sok Ju, Department Director of the Central Committee of the WPK Kim Yang Gon and Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Liu Xiaoming.
Xi Jinping conveyed to Kim Jong Il a personal verbal message sent by Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and president of the People's Republic of China, and presented to him a gift prepared by himself.
Kim Jong Il thanked for this and asked Xi Jinping to convey his regards to Hu Jintao before having a cordial and friendly conversation with him.
Vice-President of China Leaves
Pyongyang, June 19 (KCNA) -- Xi Jinping, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice-president of the People's Republic of China, left here today by air after winding up his official good-will visit to the DPRK at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK.
Leaving together with him were Vice-Minister in Charge of the National Development and Reform Commission Zhu Zhixin, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhang Yesui, Deputy Head of the International Liaison Department of the C.C., CPC Liu Hongcai, Vice-Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, Deputy Director of the Policy Research Office of the C.C., CPC Shi Zhihong and other suite members.
They were seen off by Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, Kim Ki Nam, secretary of the Central Committee of the WPK, and others.
For Rural Tibetans, the Future Is in Town
By Jill Drew
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 20, 2008; Page A01
GEZA, China -- Her elder sister is the first to rise, bringing in wood to light the cooking fire and setting water to boil for yak butter tea. Her mother is next, grabbing clumps of freshly picked dandelion greens from a metal tub to mix with barley powder and water to feed the pigs.
Jian Hongmei pulls her blanket tight, trying for a few more minutes of sleep before acknowledging the new day, which opens as so many others have in her 19 years in this Tibetan mountain village.
But today is different. For the past month, Jian has been working in a new job at a small hotel about two hours away by bus. She's cleaning guest rooms and hustling for customers, making more money than the four adult farmers in her family put together. Today is her first visit back.
"I've lived here long enough," Jian says later, as she walks beside a brilliant-green barley field, stopping a few times to pick yellow blossoms from wild medicinal plants that she used to spend hours gathering to sell at market. "I want to see other places and do other things. Here, nothing changes."
Tibetans, traditionally nomadic herders and farmers, are increasingly being lured into a commercial world, a place where Chinese and English language skills are prerequisites for success and ethnic identity is something to be marketed to tourists. Many young Tibetans like Jian jump at the chance to escape harsh farm work on mountain plateaus, but the opportunity means leaving behind a way of life that has defined one of the most romanticized cultures in the world
The government has mandated that all Shangri-La street signs be written in Tibetan, Chinese and English. Most new buildings along major thoroughfares must use Tibetan-style architecture. Cobblestone streets lined with local handicraft shops and Tibetan restaurants define the city's old town section. Yaks graze on open plains next to the runway at Shangri-La's airport.
[Tourism]
US-India nuclear deal appears to be in trouble
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG – 1 day ago
NEW DELHI (AP) — The future of a landmark nuclear energy accord between India and the United States looked deeply uncertain Wednesday after India's government put off talks with powerful communist opponents of the pact.
The meeting is now scheduled to take place next week. But even if it goes ahead, it's unclear what difference it will make with the communist parties steadfast in their opposition, reinforcing doubts over whether the deal can be clinched before President Bush leaves office.
"We have several times made our position clear — we are opposed to it," Nilotpal Basu, a top official of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), told The Associated Press.
The deal would "undermine the independent foreign policy of India," he said, citing U.S. pressure on New Delhi to aid Washington's efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program. "We do not think this deal gives us any advantages."
[Nuclear deal]
Toil and Troubles Unite China Ahead of Olympics
With the Beijing Olympic Games just 50 days away, China is now united more than ever. Western condemnation of China's suppression of pro-democracy protesters in Tibet triggered a wave of Chinese patriotism, and the tragic earthquake that struck Sichuan Province heightened the sentiment to an extraordinary level.
Since early this month state-run broadcaster CCTV has been airing documentaries on "heroes" who survived the quake, encouraging China to come together. Xinhua News Agency and other Chinese press have also reported that the quake helped forge a "new China" and a new Chinese people. Some even say the quake is an opportunity to turn misfortune into fortune.
Events to celebrate "D-50", the 50-day countdown to the Olympics, took place on a reduced scale in the aftermath of the quake, but the country is expected to be swept by Olympic fever in short time amid the heightened nationalistic zeal. To link the will to overcome the national crisis to the Beijing Games, the Chinese government has adjusted the schedule of the Olympic torch relay. Originally slated to travel through Sichuan Province last month, the torch will instead arrive in the region on Aug. 3 for a three-day journey before heading to the final destination of Beijing on Aug. 6.
Syria's Assad Forges Economic Ties With India
Syrian President Assad and Indian Prime Minister Singh before an official meeting in New Delhi, 18 Jun 2008
Syria's president, on an official visit to India, has emphasized the need for peace in the volatile Middle East region. His visit, the first by a Syrian president in three decades, aims at boosting trade and economic ties with India. Anjana Pasricha has a report from New Delhi.
Vice-President of China Here
Pyongyang, June 17 (KCNA) -- Xi Jinping, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice-president of the People's Republic of China, arrived here today to pay an official goodwill visit to the DPRK at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK.
Agreements and Plans on Cooperation between DPRK and China Signed
Pyongyang, June 17 (KCNA) -- An agreement on economic and technical cooperation, an agreement on airway transport, an agreement on road transport and between the governments of the DPRK and the People's Republic of China were signed at the Mansudae Assembly Hall here on Tuesday.
Also plans on cooperation in the field of state quality supervision between the DPRK and China were inked.
Present at the signing ceremonies from the DPRK side were Vice-President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly Yang Hyong Sop, Secretary Kim Ki Nam and Vice Department Director Kim Thae Jong of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Yong Il, Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade Ku Pon Thae and Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Commission Choe Pae Jin and other officials concerned.
Taiwan’s Leader Outlines His Policy Toward China
By KEITH BRADSHER and EDWARD WONG
Published: June 19, 2008
TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan called on Wednesday for a rapid expansion of economic relations between Taiwan and mainland China over the next year or two that would go far beyond the weekend charter flights and increased tourism announced last Friday.
[Straits]
India-Pakistan peace on track, somehow
By Praful Bidwai
ISLAMABAD - As Pakistan stumbles towards democratization amid domestic political uncertainty, armed unrest led by Islamists along the Afghanistan border, and strained military relations with the United States, a broad consensus in favor of the peace process with India survives - almost miraculously.
However, proponents of the process on both sides of the border will have to do a good deal more to make it sustainable.
Political scientist Mohammad Waseem says this sentiment is rooted in major social trends: "A generational shift is under way - from an India-centric military-bureaucratic and political elite, to one which was born in the post- Independence period
U.S. Concerns Over India-Iran Gas Pipeline
By Subhash Vohra
Washington
18 June 2008
To fuel its growing economy, India is turning to Iran. A proposed 2,600-kilometer gas pipeline would carry natural gas from fields in Iran to India to satisfy the country’s increasing demand for energy. The proposed 7.5-billion dollar pipeline would run through Pakistan. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf cleared obstacles to the planned pipeline after the Iranian President’s recent visit to New Delhi and Islamabad. Washington continues to oppose the pipeline because it believes the pipeline will bolster Iran.
At the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in 2005 in Vienna, India voted for Iran to be referred to the U.N. Security Council because of its nuclear program. Tehran conveyed its disappointment with New Delhi, but said it had no plans to pull out of the gas deal.
The proposed pipeline will carry natural gas from Iran’s South Pars Fields in the Persian Gulf to Pakistan's major cities of Karachi and Multan and then farther onto New Delhi, India
Patrick Clawson is Deputy Director for Research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He says the United States appreciates the support India has given on the issue of Iran’s nuclear program. But he adds that Washington would be delighted if the Iran-India pipeline never got built: “The concern is that the international investment in Iran’s oil and gas industries is giving confidence to the Iranian government, and that Iran is not paying much of a price for its defiance of the Security Council over the nuclear matter.”The United States says Iran would benefit from huge gas sales as a result of the pipeline. Washington fears the pipeline will reduce the West’s economic leverage over Tehran - economic leverage that is necessary to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
[Quadrille]
China Still Lags Behind U.S. in Influence, Survey Shows
By DAVID BARBOZA
Published: June 17, 2008
SHANGHAI — Despite China’s remarkable economic rise, and its efforts to spread its influence in Asia through what is known as “soft power,” the country still lags far behind the United States in that sphere, according to a survey to be released Tuesday.
The survey suggests that China has a long way to go before it is perceived as a multi-faceted power and that the country has not yet found a way to translate economic gains into soft power — or the ability to influence people and nations through nonmilitary means, like culture, diplomacy, politics and education.
The study, conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the East Asia Institute in South Korea, is the latest effort to assess China’s rise at a time when American influence is widely believed to be in decline, partly because of the war in Iraq.
[Decline] [Softpower] [China competition]
Booming, China Faults U.S. Policy on the Economy
By EDWARD WONG
Published: June 17, 2008
BEIJING — Not long ago, Chinese officials sat across conference tables from American officials and got an earful.
The Americans scolded the Chinese on mismanaging their economy, from state subsidies to foreign investment regulations to the valuation of their currency. Your economic system, the Americans strongly implied, should look a lot more like ours.
But in recent weeks, the fingers have been wagging in the other direction. Senior Chinese officials are publicly and loudly rebuking the Americans on their handling of the economy and defending their own more assertive style of regulation
[Reassertion] [Decline] [China competition] [China model]
Indian to the Core, and an Oligarch
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS
Published: June 15, 2008
AT a recent cricket match here, Mukesh D. Ambani sat in his private box quietly watching the team he owns, the Mumbai Indians. He seemed oblivious to the others around him: his son cheering wildly, his wife draped in diamond jewelry and a smattering of guests anxiously awaiting the briefest opportunity to speak with him.
A minor bureaucrat stood a few rows back, strategizing with aides about how to buttonhole "the Chairman," as Mr. Ambani is sometimes called. Waiters in baggy tuxedoes took turns trying to offer him a snack, but as they drew near became too nervous to speak.
In the last century, Mohandas K. Gandhi was India’s most famous and powerful private citizen. Today, Mr. Ambani is widely regarded as playing that role, though in a very different way. Like Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Ambani belongs to a merchant caste known as the modh banias, is a vegetarian and a teetotaler and is a revolutionary thinker with bold ideas for what India ought to become.
Gates “Reassures” Asia
by Ralph A. Cossa
Ralph A. Cossa (pacforum@hawaii.rr.com) is president of the Pacific Forum CSIS.
The United States is a “resident” power in Asia that has been and will remain fully engaged
in the region and both supportive of and involved in the development of any regional
security architecture. This was the central message delivered by U.S. Defense Secretary
Robert Gates at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this past weekend. Press
coverage has focused on his “subtle warnings” to China and blunt comments about Burma
(a.k.a. Myanmar) but the real message was one of reassurance of continued U.S. commitment to
the region.[Imperialism] [China confrontation]
Taiwan presses sovereignty over disputed island chain
TAIPEI (AFP) — Taiwan pressed its sovereignty claims over a disputed island chain on Thursday as protesters demanded an apology from Japan for the sinking of a Taiwanese fishing boat there.
The incident occurred near uninhabited islands in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese.
Japan administers the chain which lies near rich energy deposits, but it is also claimed by Taipei and Beijing.
"We firmly claim our sovereignty, although the dispute needs to be settled through diplomatic channels," Taiwan's deputy foreign minister Andrew Hsia told reporters.
"However, we would demand Japan to compensate and apologise if it handles the matter improperly."
Meanwhile dozens of protesters rallied outside Tokyo's de facto embassy in Taipei, holding placards reading "shameless Japan, hegemonist Japan" as they called on it to apologise, compensate and release the crew members.
Talks boost cross-strait relations
By Tso Lon-di
Delegations from Taiwan and mainland China met June 11 in Beijing and were expected to sign accords clearing the way for direct weekend charter flights across the Taiwan Strait and an increase in the number of mainland Chinese tourists visiting the island.
In the first formal contact between the two sides since 1999, a 19-member group led by Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung held all-day talks with officials from the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits June 12. The SEF representatives will return to Taiwan June 14.
[Straits]
China and Taiwan move to closer ties
By Kathrin Hille in Beijing
Published: June 12 2008 18:52 | Last updated: June 13 2008 05:07
China and Taiwan took a big step towards closer ties on Thursday with agreements for regular non-stop charter flights, more bilateral tourism and further talks.
The agreements were the fruits of the first official meeting between the two sides in 10 years. They follow Taiwan’s election last month of a more pragmatic government led by President Ma Ying-jeou.
In addition, Taiwan’s parliament passed legislation on Thursday that legalises the conversion of renminbi, the Chinese currency, on the island. The government said it was preparing measures to allow banks to exchange Chinese for local currency by next month, timed to facilitate Chinese travel to Taiwan.
[Straits]
China's Olympic Turnabout on Knockoffs
Fake Games Merchandise Targeted
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 13, 2008; Page A01
YIWU, China -- At a city-size bazaar here in an eastern Chinese province, illegal replicas of the official Olympic mascots are being kept in broom closets and backrooms. Authorities seeking counterfeits, vendors say, could pounce at any time.
"We don't know when they're coming," said a ponytailed woman, clutching a key chain bearing the likeness of Huanhuan the Olympic Flame, which she had pulled out of a locked drawer. "But I'm sure they won't come today."
The furtive trade in the five official, adorable Olympics figures -- including Huanhuan, Jingjing the Panda and others -- is part of an Olympic-size battle that has erupted between the keepers of the Games' lucrative symbols and an army of Chinese citizens who traffic in counterfeit versions of the world's most coveted brands.
[IPR] [Counterfeiting]
Top U.S. Officials Stalling Taiwan Arms Package
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 12, 2008; Page A14
Top Bush administration officials are delaying a long-promised $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, raising the possibility that the issue will be left for the next president, according to sources inside and outside the administration.
[Arms sales]
GOP claim about Chinese oil drilling off Cuba is untrue
WASHINGTON — As Congress has debated energy policy over the past several days, an unusual argument keeps surfacing in support of drilling off the U.S. coastline and in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Why, ask some Republicans, should the United States be thwarted from drilling in its own territory when just 50 miles off the Florida coastline the Chinese government is drilling for oil under Cuban leases?
Yet no one can prove that the Chinese are drilling anywhere off Cuba's shoreline. The China-Cuba connection is "akin to urban legend," said Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida who opposes drilling off the coast of his state but who backs exploration in ANWR.
"China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period," said Jorge Pinon, an energy fellow with the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami and an expert in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Martinez cited Pinon's research when he took to the Senate floor Wednesday to set the record straight.
[Disinformation]
"Flower Girl" boosts cultural exchange between DPRK, China
+ - 18:52, June 10, 2008
The performing tour in China of the famous opera "Flower Girl" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was very successful, a DPRK newspaper said Tuesday
Rescued fisherman return to Taiwan
The China Post news staff
Thirteen anglers who were rescued after their boat sank off the Tiaoyutai islands in a collision with a Japanese frigate returned to Taiwan yesterday, but three crew members remained detained in Japan.
Tokyo released the deep-sea anglers after negotiations with Taiwan's foreign ministry, Taiwan's National Coast Guard Administration said. The anglers were returned to Keelung Harbor early yesterday morning on board a Coast Guard vessel which picked them up from a Japanese frigate 15 nautical miles off Japan's Ishigaki island Tuesday evening.
During the ride back home, Coast Guard officials already took the anglers' statements concerning the cause of the accident, which occurred in a sensitive area in the East China Sea.
Taiwan, China, and Japan all claim sovereignty over the Tiaoyutai islands.
Taiwan delegation departs for historic China talks
By DEBBY WU, AP
BEIJING -- A Taiwanese delegation arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for talks on expanding charter flights between Taiwan and China - the first formal discussions between the sides since 1999.
The 19-member Taiwanese team is being led by Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the quasi-governmental Straits Exchange Foundation, and includes two vice Cabinet ministers - the highest-ranking Taiwanese officials ever to participate in bilateral talks.
[Straits]
India renews call for time-bound nuclear disarmament
10 Jun, 2008, 2121 hrs IST, IANS
NEW DELHI: India Tuesday renewed its call for "a plan and a timetable" to eliminate all nuclear weapons from the world as a two-day international conference on nuclear disarmament concluded here.
Calling for a "new methodology" to achieve the objective of "universal, transparent and non-discriminatory" nuclear disarmament, Vice-President Hamid Ansari invoked former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's 1988 peace plan to realise this vision.
[Nuclear weapons]
Indian FM calls for joint effort with China for regional security
+ - 20:14, June 06, 2008
Visiting Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday urged India and China work together to safeguard peace, security and stability in Asia.
Speaking at Peking University, Mukherjee said, "We will need to evolve a security architecture which takes into account the conditions prevailing in Asia."
An "open and inclusive" architecture, which was flexible enough to accommodate the great diversity in Asia, was needed, he said.
Mukherjee said security issues could be discussed at some forums, such as the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)Regional Forum, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
India and China should try to work together for a new framework from these basic building blocks, he said. This would help both nations address common concerns, such as the security of sea lanes of communication, which were critical to trade and energy flows in the region and on which the future of both nations would depend.
Mukherjee said the two nations had steadily improved bilateral ties. The trade and economic relations were rapidly becoming the bedrock for a more intensive engagement.
"We are likely to cross the target of 60 billion U.S. dollars in bilateral trade by 2010," he said.
Moreover, India and China were building mutual trust and confidence between militaries. The two sides successfully held the first joint anti-terror military training last year, and this would be followed by another military training this year, he noted.
There was also growing engagement between Indian and Chinese business communities, academics and media. "These positive signs of change hold great promise for the future," he said.
After the speech, Mukherjee presented an Indian government donation of 7.5 million rupees (176,000 U.S. dollars) to the Center for India Studies of Peking University.
Mukherjee is visiting China from June 4 to 7 at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. This was his first visit to China since he took up his post.
[China India cooperation]
Contemporary Indian Views of Europe
Chatham House Report
Karine Lisbonne-de Vergeron, September 2006
This report aims to encourage deeper thought on the relationship between the EU and India by hightlighting that:
The economic and political relationships between Europe and India are currently essentially best defined in a bilateral framework with individual member states, rather than with the EU as an entity, to the overall detriment of both India and the EU.
Europe lacks a strategic vision and ranks at the bottom of the list of partners in India's multipolar understanding of the future geometry of world affairs.
India perceives the European example as a source of inspiration for enhanced regional economic cooperation in Asia, and, in particular, the euro as a constructive and impressive achievement. However, India believes that Europe's position in the next twenty years will depend, above all, on its ability to build a common defence identity, starting with cooperation between Britain and France; to strengthen the euro zone, especially by including the United Kingdom; and to make a success of its enlargement, especially by a greater rapprochement with Russia.
Europe is simply unattractive to India, especially by comparison with the United States. Many Indians regard it as 'socially and culturally protectionist', and as offering interest only on account of its 'exotic tourist appeal'.
Contemporary Chinese Views of Europe: Chatham House Report
Karine Lisbonne-de Vergeron
The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London, UK.
* The Chinese feel Europe lacks a strategic vision and suffers from internal discord, which impedes its credibility in world affairs.
Europe simply does not exist as a political centre of power, especially compared with the United States.
* China desires a more united European voice, as part of its conception of a multipolar future world order.
* China has a sophisticated approach to Europe. This includes a clear understanding of the European Union, in institutional terms and of its major member states, as well as what China perceives as European civilization in general.
* The economic and political relationships between Europe and China are currently best defined in a bilateral framework with individual member states. Nevertheless, the EU as a whole matters increasingly for China in trade and other economic issues. In the next twenty years or so, ultimately only the EU as an entity will be able to maintain a strong negotiating position with China on these matters and more generally.
* The Chinese consider the euro a 'most impressive achievement'. They believe that Europe's position in the future will depend, above all, on its ability to build a greater common defence and security identity and to strengthen the Eurozone - especially by including the United Kingdom.
* China perceives the European example as a source of inspiration for enhanced regional economic co-operation in Asia, particularly in its dealings with Japan.
* Europe remains culturally attractive, and is not fundamentally in decline (despite what some Indians and Americans, for example, believe). Although the Chinese feel that Europe and the United States are ultimately 'tied together', they nevertheless regard Europe and China as the two 'core civilizations' of the world, and therefore from this perspective see America as 'marginal'. This, they consider, would offer a unique common ground for understanding between themselves and Europeans. The EU is the primary collective sense in which the Chinese view Europe and they expect it to enlarge further.
There are, however, diverging opinions on whether Russia is fundamentally a European power. - K. Lisbonne-de Vergeron."
China’s Haier considers bid for GE unit
By Henny Sender and Francesco Guerrera in New York
Published: June 10 2008 00:11 | Last updated: June 10 2008 00:11
Chinese white-goods maker Qingdao Haier is considering a bid for General Electric’s appliance business and has begun to approach investment banks to advise it, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Haier is one of a large group of potential bidders across the globe with an interest in acquiring the GE operations, which could fetch up to $7bn.
People familiar with the process said that white-goods makers from South Korea, Germany, Turkey, Mexico, Sweden and Italy, as well as private equity groups, were looking at the business, which had sales of $7.2bn last year but has long been one of the least profitable parts of GE.
In 2005, Haier teamed up with private equity firms Bain Capital and Blackstone to bid for another American icon, the appliances group Maytag, but lost that contest to Ripplewood Holdings.
Since that time, manufacturers in China and India have bid for manufacturing companies in the US, seeking to marry their low-cost production facilities with US brands and distribution.
[IM]
Sichuan earthquake: Tragedy brings new mood of unity
Government wins praise for reaction as the young lead surge in patriotic sentiment
Jonathan Watts in Mianzhu The Guardian, Tuesday June 10 2008
Article history
A nine-year-old girl listens during her first day at a tented school, part of a camp in Mianyan that houses 4,000 people displaced by the Sichuan earthquake. Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Last week Zhang Qiyu decided to take a break from her elite university in Beijing and volunteer at a refugee camp for survivors of the Sichuan earthquake.
Petite, pony-tailed and bespectacled, the 22-year-old swapped her urban dormitory for a tent in the Mianzhu countryside among thousands of the 5 million people made homeless by China's most devastating natural disaster in more than 30 years.
While bulldozers, mechanical diggers and cement mixers dress wounds inflicted on the landscape, she is now helping to heal the psychological scars by caring for infants at a newly-erected children's centre.
She and an army of 150,000 other volunteers - plus 130,000 soldiers and tens of thousands of construction workers - are part of a rebuilding effort that looks set to reshape not just Sichuan, but also the way the nation sees itself and relates to the outside world.
Like many of her generation, Zhang says she is now more patriotic and concerned about China. "I have grown up because so many things have happened," she says. "I used to look at events and think how they affected me. Now I consider whether they benefit my country." That nationalist ethos pervades the relief effort one month after the quake. Throughout the affected area China is doing what it has done most prolifically for the past decade: building.
New round of ping pong diplomacy
Ed Pilkington in New York The Guardian, Tuesday June 10 2008
Article history
Two other players, America's Errol Resek and China's Xu Shaofa, take part in a training session on the 1971 tour of Beijing. Photograph: AFP
The nine American table tennis players who crossed into China from Hong Kong in April 1971 were, by their own admission, wholly at a loss about what was happening. They saw the invitation as an opportunity to study the skills of their superior Chinese rivals.
But when the story exploded around the world they began to wake up to its importance. "It began to dawn on us that this trip had much more significance than simply a table tennis outing," said one of the nine, George Braithwaite, this week. On Thursday, 37 years after he was unwittingly deployed in "ping pong diplomacy", Braithwaite will play a rematch against Liang Geliang, the top ranked Chinese player he faced in 1971 during the tour of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The tour marked the first time that Americans had been allowed into China since 1949. But its real value was that it made visible the secret detente that had been under way for months, with messages passing between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong. The tour paved the way for Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972.
[China card]
China's Thirst for Oil
Asia Report N°153
9 June 2008
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
China’s need for energy is growing faster than any other country’s. Record economic growth results in demand that outstrips domestic supply, leading Beijing to look outward to ensure growth and stability. Concerns about the global oil market have led state firms to buy stakes around the world, often in countries shunned by Western firms. The investments are an important factor in Beijing’s foreign policy. They also drive concerns that China’s actions fuel or exacerbate conflict in the developing world and cause tensions with other major oil-importing countries as it locks up energy resources. China’s energy needs have led it to play a more prominent role in international markets in recent years. This has generated concerns about the potential impact on other countries’ energy security, and global and regional security generally. These are largely overstated, but China could take a number of steps, as its policymaking and implementation evolves, which would help create a more cooperative international environment on both energy and wider security issues.
Furthermore, Beijing’s idea of energy security is showing signs of evolving from a mercantilist approach based on distrust of international markets, and therefore a desire for physical control of oil supplies, to a more open approach favouring international energy markets and cooperation. Chinese leaders are coming to understand that their state companies’ investments abroad have contributed far more to those companies’ profits than to improving the country’s energy security
[China demand] [Double standards]
Rethinking China’s Tibet Policy
Ben Hillman
Both official Chinese and exile Tibetan responses to the protests that broke across Tibet last month followed a familiar, worn-out script. For the Tibetan exiles and their international supporters, this was a last gasp for independence by the victims of cultural genocide. For the Chinese government this was premeditated mayhem orchestrated by the "Dalai clique" and "criminal elements" bent on splitting China. Both sides have it wrong.
Certainly, Tibetan exile flags and "free Tibet" slogans were features of Tibet's biggest and most violent protests in decades, but it is simplistic to see the widespread discontent on the Tibet Plateau as a bid for freedom by an oppressed people. Protests in Lhasa began with Tibetan monks using the anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight into exile (March 10, 1959) to peacefully demonstrate against tight religious controls, including patriotic education campaigns and forced denunciations of the Dalai Lama, but they were soon joined by ordinary Tibetans who used violence against non-Tibetans and their property. Victims included Muslim traders as well as Han Chinese.
Europe must build an alliance with China
By Charles Grant
Published: June 8 2008 18:23 | Last updated: June 8 2008 18:23
The shift of power from west to east, as the US-dominated international order becomes multipolar, is evident. But the nature of the emerging system is far from clear. Will it be competitive, based on the assertion of national power, or co-operative, framed by international rules?
Robert Kagan, in his new book The End of Dreams and the Return of History, foresees the former. He expects the political values of the various powers to determine their alliances. Thus Russia and China could form an axis of autocracies, united by their dislike of political liberalism. They would face an axis of democracies, consisting of the US, Europe, Japan and perhaps India.
Many Europeans recoil from that kind of balance-of-power politics. They believe that the big challenges – climate change, energy security, migration and terrorism – require co-operation among all the leading powers, rather than just the democratic ones, and strong multilateral institutions.
Of the big powers, only the European Union can be relied on to champion multilateralism. The concept is built into its DNA, since the union itself is a multilateral construction. China, India, Russia and the US are capable of acting unilaterally, bilaterally or multilaterally, depending on their perception of which tool best promotes their interests.
The prospect of a multilateral order looks quite good. As the US becomes relatively weaker, and more concerned about the behaviour of other powers, it is more likely to favour strong institutions to constrain them. Many Europeans and Americans, driven by economic self-interest, will prefer to engage rather than confront Russia and China. And a close alliance between those two countries is unlikely: their political elites mistrust each other, and Moscow knows that in any partnership with Beijing, China’s economic strength will make it the dominant partner. China’s leaders care more about what Washington thinks than Moscow. Indeed, the most important geostrategic relationship of the 21st century is likely to be that of China and the US, because of their mutual economic dependence and potential strategic rivalry.
[Realignment]
Inside Gate, India’s Good Life; Outside, the Slums
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
A child walking in a trash-strewn lot near the gated community of Hamilton Court in Gurgaon, India. More Photos >
! BuzzPermalink
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: June 9, 2008
GURGAON, India — When the scorch of summer hit this north Indian boomtown, and the municipal water supply worked only a few hours each day, inside a high-rise tower called Hamilton Court, Jaya Chand could turn on her kitchen tap around the clock, and water would gush out.
The same was true when the electricity went out in the city, which it did on average for 12 hours a day, something that once prompted residents elsewhere in Gurgaon to storm the local power office. All the while, the Chands’ flat screen television glowed, the air-conditioners hummed, and the elevators cruised up and down Hamilton Court’s 25 floors.
Behind the Wall
By ALIDA BECKER
Published: June 8, 2008
On a winter evening in 1938, Joseph Needham, one of Cambridge University’s most brilliant scientists — and one of its most avid skirt-chasers — lay in bed with a Chinese microbiologist who was also a colleague of Needham’s extremely tolerant wife. Enjoying a post-coital cigarette, he asked her how its name might be rendered in Chinese. His diary records that she obliged by guiding him through the ideogram for "fragrant smoke." Charmed, he instantly resolved to learn this fascinating language. It was the first step in a project that would absorb Needham until his death in 1995, turning him into one of the foremost Western authorities on China, dedicated to reminding the world that the Middle Kingdom’s decline into backwardness and turmoil had been preceded by centuries of extraordinary creativity — including crucial inventions like gunpowder, printing and the compass, all mistakenly thought to have originated elsewhere. The vehicle for these and countless other revelations was to be a work "addressed," as Needham put it, "to all educated people." The first volume of "Science and Civilisation in China," published in 1954, has never gone out of print. Eighteen volumes were released during Needham’s lifetime; there are now 24, with more still to come.
[cbw]
India, China jostle for influence in Indian Ocean
By GAVIN RABINOWITZ
The Associated Press
Saturday, June 7, 2008; 11:57 AM
HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka -- This battered harbor town on Sri Lanka's southern tip, with its scrawny men selling even scrawnier fish, seems an unlikely focus for an emerging international competition over energy supply routes that fuel much of the global economy.
An impoverished place still recovering from the devastation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hambantota has a desolate air, a sense of nowhereness, punctuated by the realization that looking south over the expanse of ocean, the next landfall is Antarctica.
But just over the horizon runs one of the world's great trade arteries, the shipping lanes where thousands of vessels carry oil from the Middle East and raw materials to Asia, returning with television sets, toys and sneakers for European consumers.
These tankers provide 80 percent of China's oil and 65 percent of India's _ fuel desperately needed for the two countries' rapidly growing economies. Japan, too, is almost totally dependent on energy supplies shipped through the Indian Ocean
Now, India is trying to parry China's moves. It beat out China for a port project in Myanmar. And, flush with cash from its expanding economy, India is beefing up its military, with the expansion seemingly aimed at China. Washington and, to a lesser extent, Tokyo are encouraging India's role as a counterweight to growing Chinese power.
[China confrontation] [Triangular] [Proliferation]
China takes on the US - in space
By Alan Boyd
SYDNEY - Chinese military experts believe a confrontation in space, probably with the United States, is inevitable. What they haven't said is whether they expect to win.
Two disarmament officials with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) this week accused Washington in an assessment of the global weapons buildup of fueling an arms race aimed at controlling "the commanding heights".
"In the not too distant future, outer space will certainly become a stage for struggle between countries," charged Xu Nengwu, of China's National Defense Science and Technology University.
Simialry, Lieutenant General Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of staff of
the PLA, speaking at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore at the weekend, was less than subtle. He did not mention the US at all (other than including Hurricane Katrina in the list of recent natural disasters), but did identify "expansion of military alliance" and "development and expansion of missile defense system" among the major security challenges the region faces.
[China confrontation]
Wu's mainland China visit hailed a success
Wu Poh-hsiung and Hu Jintao shake hands before formal party-to-party talks in Beijing May 28.(CNA)
Publication Date:06/06/2008
By Tso Lon-di
President Ma Ying-jeou described the meeting between Kuomintang Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung and the Chinese Communist Party General-Secretary Hu Jintao as "satisfactory" and "successful," lauding Wu's trip as a testimony to Taiwan's "soft power."
Wu, who met with Hu May 28 in Beijing, visited Ma at the presidential office shortly after returning from mainland China May 31. Wu told Ma that the chemistry between him and many of the PRC officials was so "good," he did not believe Beijing would use any missiles against the island.
[Straits] [Softpower]
China likely to beat U.S. back to the moon, NASA says
By Robert S. Boyd | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Here's one Olympic-style event that China is likely to win: landing the next humans on the moon.
Chinese astronauts are on schedule to beat the United States back to the moon by two or three years, the head of NASA's lunar exploration program said Wednesday.
[China competition]
Agreement on Cooperation in Field of Customs Signed between DPRK and China
Beijing, June 4 (KCNA) -- An agreement on the cooperation in the field of customs between the governments of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the People's Republic of China was signed in Beijing on Tuesday.
Present at the signing ceremony were members of the delegation of the General Customs Bureau headed by its Director Ji Yong Sik from the DPRK side and a staff member of its embassy in Beijing and officials concerned from the Chinese side.
[Trade]
DPRK vows to boost economic, trade co-op with China
+ - 08:16, June 05, 2008
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will further strengthen economic and trade cooperation with China, the DPRK's foreign trade minister said Wednesday.
Ri Ryong Nam said the DPRK people speak highly of the achievements made by the Chinese people under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,
The minister said at a reception in the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang that he hoped the Chinese people will defeat the earthquake disaster and hold the Beijing Olympics successfully.
Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, said the China-DPRK economic and trade cooperation not only benefits the peoples of the two countries but also the development and prosperity of the regional economy.
On the basis of the principles of mutual benefit, win-win cooperation and common development, China will strengthen cooperation with the DPRK in infrastructure construction, exploration and processing of mineral resources, and frontier trade, he added.
Bilateral trade has grown steadily in recent years. The trade volume between the two countries reached 1.97 billion U.S. dollars in 2007, according to Chinese statistics, up 16.1 percent on the previous year.
[China-NK relations] [Trade]
In China diplomacy, Rudd leads the way
By Geoff Dyer
Published: June 4 2008 16:55 | Last updated: June 4 2008 16:55
As I walked around Tiananmen Square on Wednesday evening, being photographed by the huge number of plain-clothes police, one point was clear: the June 4 anniversary of the 1989 massacre is still a highly sensitive moment in China. Yet it was only a few years ago that the anniversary was also a big diplomatic event. Earnest declarations would be made by foreign governments about political prisoners and large vigils would be held around the world.
It is a measure of how effectively China has managed to alter the terms of discussions about its human rights record that Wednesday’s 19th anniversary passed off with only modest comment, even after all the questions that the unrest in Tibet has raised about the real nature of the country’s political system. Despite all the "dialogues" still going on with western countries, China has managed to neuter human rights diplomacy.
As diplomats scramble in search of ways to conduct this sort of conversation, a lot of attention is being paid to the speech Kevin Rudd, the new Australian prime minister, gave to students in Beijing two months ago. Mr Rudd famously charmed the Chinese when he addressed President Hu Jintao in Mandarin during his visit to Canberra last year, but he also did his masters thesis on a famous Chinese dissident who was jailed for advocating democracy in the late 1970s.
Mr Rudd used the speech to launch the idea of zhengyou, a 7th-century Chinese word for friendship. "A true friend is one who can be a zhengyou," he said, which involves "the ability to engage in a direct, frank and ongoing dialogue about our fundamental interests and future vision." His Chinese audience lapped it up.
All this may sound too clever by half to some ears, as if linguistic sleight-of-hand can somehow overcome deep disagreements. Yet by framing criticism in terms of Chinese tradition, Mr Rudd has established an interesting middle road between the quiet chat that gets ignored and standing on a soapbox to deliver lectures. Other governments are watching with interest.
Chinese Vice-President to Visit DPRK
Pyongyang, June 5 (KCNA) -- Xi Jinping, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice-president of the People's Republic of China, will shortly pay an official goodwill visit to the DPRK at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPRK government.
Chinese perspectives on constituting a security cooperation mechanism in Northeast Asia
Posted Date : 2008-05-29 (IFES Forum No. 08-5-29-1)
by Ding Yuanhong (Senior Adviser to the China Reform Forum)
(This paper was prepared for the international conference, "Peace on the Korean Peninsula and the Security Environment in Northeast Asia," held in Seoul on May 1, 2008 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the University of North Korean Studies.)
A fair and lasting security cooperation mechanism in Northeast Asia will be conducive to the peace, stability and prosperity of this region and favor the best interests of the peoples in all countries involved. It will contribute also to the peace and development in the world. As an important member in the Northeast Asia, China has always been working hard and making relentless efforts to maintain the regional peace and stability, to strengthen the friendly relationship with other countries and to promote the regional development and cooperation. Aiming at constituting a fare and lasting security cooperation mechanism, China would like to work together with other countries in the region. China will study and support any proposal or move which is conducive to this goal. I believe this seminar will be useful for better communicating and understanding among all participants
Chinese Vice President to Visit North Korea
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Pyongyang later this month to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, according to diplomatic sources Wednesday.
Xi is one of China's next-generation leaders after President Hu Jintao.
"He will make a three-day trip to North Korea starting June 16," a source was quoted as saying
China's Peace, Luv, and Missile Cut
Talk about peace, love and understanding! Reuters today is quoting a Nationalist Party spokeswoman from Taiwan as saying China has vowed to cut the number of missiles aimed at Taiwan.
I said in an earlier post that the stage has been set for a luv-fest between Beijing and Taipei.
Today's report concerns a meeting last week between Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung and senior leaders in Beijing, including President Hu Jintao. Wu asked about the missiles and was told China would stop deploying them ahead of a gradual reduction. "It was a friendly reaction," spokeswoman Ms. Chen Shu-jung told Reuters. China did not set a timeline or estimate how many missiles might be removed, she said.
If this report turns out to be true, it would be really major. Not just an olive branch, heck, a whole tree, presented by China's leaders to the new president of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, who took office on May 20. Ma has also set his sights on a peace accord, as well as a boost in trade ties. Get ready for negotiations to begin on direct air travel. Shanghai to Taipei, less than a two-hour flight. Good for biznez!
The Taiwan-China luv-fest doesn't stop there.
[Straits]
South Asia courts nuclear insecurity
Praful Bidwai
Khaleej Times, 17 May 2008
Instead of abandoning nuclear weapons, India is trying to have them legitimised through the US nuclear deal.
Imagine being asked whether you’d undergo a high-risk operation under a surgeon who’s unaccountable to you. Or being asked to let a distant, supposedly wise, uncle decide about your family’s safety in your absence during civil war conditions.
If you’re normal and rational, you’d refuse to surrender your right to make an informed choice — no matter how skilled the surgeon or wise the uncle. You wouldn’t want decision-making authority about your loved ones’ safety be usurped by “experts”.
In this Age of Democracy and Transparency, you’d use the same rationale for state decisions.
Now consider what happened three weeks after the Vajpayee government took office in India in 1998. Four men met the Prime Minister, Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) secretary R. Chidambaram and Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) chief APJ Abdul Kalam-to discuss India’s response to an April 6 missile test-flight by Pakistan.
They decided to retaliate not by test-flying a missile, but by upturning India’s nuclear policy of 50 years’ standing: not to make nuclear weapons although it might have that capability.
Thus came about the Pokharan-II tests, according to Mishra (Hindustan Times, May 7), without consultation with the Cabinet, the defence minister and services chiefs.
[Nuclear deal] [Nuclear weapons]
Selling China's cars to the world: An interview with Chery's CEO
Yin Tongyao explains how his fledgling automotive company learned to profit from adversity.
Paul Gao
May 2008
Few people took Chery Automobile seriously when it was established, a little more than a decade ago, in the city of Wuhu, in Anhui Province, China. Chery was a newcomer in a small area that had little tradition of manufacturing and was far from the country’s traditional centers of auto production, in Beijing, Changchun, Shanghai, and Wuhan. When the start-up failed to find buyers for a motor engine it had developed, there was little choice but to manufacture a car of its own so that the engine could find a home. After this first car had been built, bureaucratic obstacles prevented the company from selling it. As chairman and chief executive officer Yin Tongyao puts it, “Chery kept hitting the wall over the past decade. Every time we hit a wall, we just reoriented and moved on.”
Chery truly has moved on. In 2007, it sold 381,000 passenger cars, generating 20 billion renminbi ($2.86 billion) in sales and ranking fourth in the domestic passenger-car market. (The top three are brands associated with joint ventures between Chinese and foreign automakers; Chery is an independent manufacturer.) The company is among a handful of Chinese carmakers that have proprietary technology to build core components, such as engines, gearboxes, and chassis. It has also been the top Chinese passenger-car exporter for five consecutive years—in 2007, it sold 119,000 units abroad, accounting for 30 percent of that year’s total sales. Today, Chery’s Tiggo, Eastar, and A5 models can be found on the streets and roads of nearly 70 countries, and the company has seven foreign assembly plants, in Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Ukraine, and Uruguay.
[Auto] [IM] [China competition]
China's opportunity in offshore services
China faces major challenges to becoming a global giant in the offshoring and outsourcing of services.
Enrico Benni and Alex Peng
May 2008
China currently accounts for less than 10 percent of the global market for the offshoring and outsourcing of services. Yet McKinsey research—including interviews with officials at many Chinese government agencies, executives at Chinese leading services providers, and managers at Chinese services-outsourcing parks—suggests that by implementing an aggressive strategy to develop the sector and cultivate talent, the country could capture opportunities worth $56 billion a year by 2015.
China faces formidable challenges but can also draw on unique strengths.
[Offshoring] [Services]
Insight: Global vision will lift India
By Hugh Young
Published: June 2 2008 16:29 | Last updated: June 2 2008 16:29
Once a shining jewel, India’s sparkle has dimmed in recent months.
Foreigners withdrew an estimated $3bn from the stock market in the first quarter. Despite a bounce in March, the MSCI India index is down 25 per cent this year in US dollar terms, the worst-performing, along with Shanghai, of the larger emerging markets.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Special reports: India - Jun-02Disenchantment has several sources.
At the simplest level, the market was ripe for a setback, having appreciated sevenfold in four years. But unlike other markets, the catalyst has been more domestic than credit-implosion led. With growth having topped 9 per cent three years running, the economy was reaching its limits in terms of spare capacity, causing inflationary pressures.
The central bank’s response has been orthodox. The RBI has tightened policy aggressively by raising cash reserve ratios, while real interest rates remain positive, unlike in many other emerging markets. Consequently, growth is expected to slow to a still robust 7-7.5 per cent this fiscal year.
Critics of India are also exercised about its chronic underinvestment in roads, ports and energy. Delhi’s fiscal profligacy means there is nothing left in the kitty, so we are unlikely to see significant improvements soon.
For some investors, the loss of momentum and infrastructure difficulties are proof that for now at least, India’s story is over.
I disagree.
Culture and Collapse
By Pierre Fuller
China has shown a "dismayingly cavalier attitude toward the well-being of its people," a British journalist turned pop historian determined recently in the pages of the New York Times. The Chinese, he explained, long ago handed over science – and by extension earthquake resistant engineering – to "the West," leaving "themselves to become mired, time and again, in the kind of tragic events that we are witnessing this week." The thrust of this piece by Simon Winchester (which simultaneously appeared in the International Herald Tribune and evidently stems from his latest books, The Man Who Loved China (2008), on Joseph Needham, the chronicler of the history of Chinese science, and A Crack in the Edge of the World (2005), on the San Francisco quake of 1906) was China’s fall in the sixteenth century from mankind’s technological pioneer to a "culture that turned its back on its remarkable and glittering history" and "became impoverished, backward and prey to the caprices of nature."
[China confrontation] [Spin]
China's influence over the North rapidly gaining economic weight
June 02, 2008
North Korea, whose tattered economy has been partly sustained by trade with and aid from South Korea and imports from China, is now increasingly seeing its economy influenced by China. With China now rapidly beefing up its economic leverage over the North, Seoul is feeling pressured to deepen its economic ties with Pyongyang in order to cut the costs of eventual reunification, no matter how far in the future it may be.
According to data from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, North Korea's trade with the South amounted to $6.4 million in 2002, slightly short of the $7.4 million worth of trade the North did with China during the same period. But the gap has rapidly widened in the following four years. Inter-Korean trade in 2006 stood at $1.4 billion, far short of the $1.7 billion between the North and China.
[China NK relations] [Trade] [FDI]
Pentagon Chief Says U.S. Will Remain Asian Power
By REUTERS
Published: May 31, 2008
Filed at 3:05 a.m. ET
Skip to next paragraph SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Washington will remain committed to Asia no matter who wins this year's U.S. presidential election, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the region's decision makers on Saturday.
His message at a conference of Asian security and defense officials appeared intended both to reassure allies and serve as a statement of intent to China, following Beijing's rise in economic and military power in recent years.
[China confrontation]
KMT chairman's China visit signals a new beginning
Publication Date:05/29/2008
By Tso Londi
The leaders of Taiwan's and mainland China's ruling parties met May 28 in the highest-level contact between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in 60 years.
Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of the Kuomintang, and Hu Jintao, general-secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, shook hands during a red carpet welcome at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, with the event broadcast on mainland China's state-controlled television.
In his opening remarks to the meeting, Hu said that he hoped to promote relations between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang. "I look forward to the future and pushing for the peaceful development of cross-strait relations."
Wu responded that the two peoples should never take up arms against each other again and added that Sichuan quake showed "we can work together to free our countrymen from war."
Wu's six-day trip came after Hu invited the KMT chief to visit the mainland earlier this month. At a send-off for the KMT boss, which was attended by President Ma Ying-jeou, Vice President Vincent Siew, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan and other KMT heavyweights, Wu said he would approach his meeting with Hu by "neither cringing nor being arrogant."
"I hope my trip will help build sound interactions across the Taiwan Strait and implement the KMT's mainland China policies," Wu said. "This will help make President Ma's campaign promises a reality."
Arriving May 26 in Nanjing, the capital of eastern China's Jiangsu Province via Hong Kong, the 16-member delegation was met by Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee. The flight into mainland China passed via Hong Kong because of the long-standing absence of direct air links across the Taiwan Strait.
Speaking at the airport, Wu expressed hope that the two sides would set aside disputes, shelve differences and create a win-win situation on the basis of the "1992 Consensus." "There will be many difficulties ahead of us, but we are confident of achieving peace as long as we remain sincere in our dealings," he said.
A visit to the mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the Republic of China's founding father, May 27 followed before the delegation proceeded to Beijing for Wu's talks with Hu. The group left Beijing for Shanghai May 29 to meet with city and party officials, as well as top executives of leading Taiwan businesses in China.
[Straits]
10 years on, nuclear shadow promises peace
Colonel Dr Anil A Athale (retd)
May 28, 2008
In those tense days of May 1998 when India and then Pakistan conducted nuclear tests, no one could have imagined that a day would come when Indian cricket fans would be cheering the Rawalpindi Express, Shoaib Akhtar [Images]!
But ten years after the Pakistani tests on May 28, even Asif Zardari of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party is talking about visa-free travel between the two countries. As one defence analyst put it, if possible, the Nobel Peace Prize should be given to nuclear weapons. What role did nuclear weapons play in this process of normalisation? Ten years on, it would be worth our while to take a stock of the first nuclear decade in the subcontinent
[Nuclear weapons]
Time to Mend Fences With Taiwan
The skies were dazzlingly clear over Myong-dong, Seoul. As the national flag slowly descended the pole at the embassy's front gate, the shoulders of girl students in the band playing the national anthem began to tremble. Waving paper flags of blue sky, white sun and red earth, the national flag of Taiwan, some wept and choked. The white uniforms worn by students of the Overseas Chinese School in Seoul looked like the mourning clothes of women at a national funeral.
That was the scene on the last day of the Taiwanese Embassy in Seoul on Aug. 24, 1992. It is still vivid in my memory, because it reminded me of the sorrow our forefathers must have undergone when our country was annexed and colonized by Japan. "Do we have to go this far for the sake of the national interest?" we asked.
The China visit by the Taiwanese Nationalist Party chairman Wu Po-hsiung coincided with that of President Lee Myung-bak. And while our local press played up Lee's visit, the media in Taiwan and Hong Kong naturally played up Wu's, some allotting four to five pages to it.
In that friendly atmosphere, Hu revealed China's support for Taiwanese membership in the World Health Organization. -- an exceptional step for China, which does not officially recognize Taiwan as a state. Hu was promptly invited to Taiwan, .and the two leaders agreed to reopen dialogue channels across the strait in June and discuss direct weekend flights between the mainland and Taiwan.
Down with the Dalai Lama
Why do western commentators idolise a celebrity monk who hangs out with Sharon Stone and once guest-edited French Vogue?
Brendan O'Neill
Has there ever been a political figure more ridiculous than the Dalai Lama? This is the "humble monk" who forswears worldly goods in favour of living a simple life dressed in maroon robes. Yet in 1992 he guest-edited French Vogue, the bible of the decadent high-fashion classes, which is packed with pictures of the half-starved daughters of the aristocracy modelling skirts and shirts that most of us could never afford.
He claims to be the current incarnation of the Tulkus line of Buddhist masters, who are "exempt from the wheel of death and rebirth". Yet he's best known for hanging out with clueless western celebs like Richard Gere and Sharon Stone (who is still most famous for showing her vagina on the big screen). Stone once introduced the Dalai Lama at a glittering fundraising ball as "Mr Please, Please, Please Let Me Back Into China!"
The Dalai Lama says he wants Tibetan autonomy and political independence. Yet he allows himself to be used as a tool by western powers keen to humiliate China. Between the late 1950s and 1974, he is alleged to have received around $15,000 a month, or $180,000 a year, from the CIA. He has also been, according to the same reporter, "remarkably nepotistic", promoting his brothers and their wives to positions of extraordinary power in his fiefdom-in-exile in Dharamsala, northern India.
'They are not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a very good friend of mine'
Robert Booth and Justin McCurry in Tokyo The Guardian, Friday May 30 2008
French fashion house Christian Dior said today it had dropped Sharon Stone from its Chinese advertisements and released a statement from the actress apologising for saying the earthquake that struck China may have been the result of bad "karma" over its treatment of Tibet. Photograph: Ian West/PA Wire
It was an off-the-cuff remark on the red carpet at the Cannes film festival. But yesterday it led to the embarrassment of one of Hollywood's biggest stars, an apology by one of the world's great luxury brands, and the undiluted anger of a global superpower.
The next time Sharon Stone is asked her views on current affairs, it is unlikely she will repeat the mistake she made over the earthquake in China. The face of Christian Dior suggested the country's devastating earthquake was the result of bad karma caused by Beijing's treatment of her "good friend" the Dalai Lama.
"I have been very concerned about how we should deal with the Olympics because they are not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a good friend of mine," she said. "And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened I thought, is that karma?"
[IM]
Behind Dalai Lama's holy cloak
Michael Backman
May 23, 2007
THE Dalai Lama show is set to roll into Australia again next month and again Australian politicians are getting themselves in a twist as to whether they should meet him.
Rarely do journalists challenge the Dalai Lama.
Partly it is because he is so charming and engaging. Most published accounts of him breeze on as airily as the subject, for whom a good giggle and a quaint parable are substitutes for hard answers. But this is the man who advocates greater autonomy for millions of people who are currently Chinese citizens, presumably with him as head of their government. So, why not hold him accountable as a political figure?
No mere spiritual leader, he was the head of Tibet's government when he went into exile in 1959. It was a state apparatus run by aristocratic, nepotistic monks that collected taxes, jailed and tortured dissenters and engaged in all the usual political intrigues. (The Dalai Lama's own father was almost certainly murdered in 1946, the consequence of a coup plot.)
The government set up in exile in India and, at least until the 1970s, received $US1.7 million a year from the CIA.
The money was to pay for guerilla operations against the Chinese, notwithstanding the Dalai Lama's public stance in support of non-violence, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
The Dalai Lama himself was on the CIA's payroll from the late 1950s until 1974, reportedly receiving $US15,000 a month ($US180,000 a year).
Most strikingly, the Dalai Lama is used as a battering ram by western governments in their culture war with China. The reason he is flattered by world leaders and bankrolled by the CIA is not because these institutions care very much for liberty in Tibet, but rather because they want to ratchet up international pressure on their new competitors in world politics: the Chinese. You don't have to be a defender of the authoritarian regime in Beijing (and I most certainly am not) to see that such global sabre-rattling is more likely to entrench tensions between the Tibetan people and China, and increase instability in world affairs, rather than herald anything like a new era of freedom in the east.
Sonia’s choice
K. Subrahmanyam
Posted online: Thursday, May 29, 2008
Whether to sacrifice national interests for a few more months in power
The president of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, is facing a lonely decision as she did in the summer of 2004 when she decided to step aside in favour of Manmohan Singh as prime minister. At that stage, she was under tremendous pressure from almost all her partymen to assume the office of the prime minister. She asserted that she was listening to her “inner voice” and therefore not accepting their near-unanimous pleas. Once again, she faces the lonely decision whether to focus on the Indian national interest and Rajiv’s legacy or be influenced by her party veterans who tend to put what they consider, often mistakenly, party interests ahead of other vital considerations.
Rajiv Gandhi wanted to integrate India technologically with the world. He laid the foundation of India’s nuclear weapons programme and of the expansion of its civil nuclear programme by initiating negotiations with Russia on the Kudankulam project. Are we going to sustain and nurture his legacy or are we going to wind it up because the Left threatens to withdraw its support to the government if India were to continue the Rajiv legacy of technologically integrating with the world? All this for a few more months in office?
[Nuclear deal] [nuclear weapons]
Lee Pushes for Stronger Trade Ties With China
On the second day of his official visit to China on Wednesday, President Lee Myung-bak met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Jia Qinglin, chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference, and agreed to step up cooperation on expanding economic exchange and trade. The leaders of the two countries agreed to revise the bilateral investment treaty and update and improve a joint study on bilateral economic cooperation and trade adopted in 2005.
Senior Officials of DPRK Meet Indian Foreign Ministry Delegation
Pyongyang, May 28 (KCNA) -- Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met and had a friendly talk with the delegation of the Indian Foreign Ministry led by Secretary N. Ravi at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today.
Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun, too, met the delegation on the same day.
President Lee to Visit Sichuan Province Friday
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak plans to visit China's earthquake-devastated Sichuan Province Friday to deliver his condolences to the Chinese people, Lee's spokesman announced Thursday.
``President Lee will fly to Sichuan Province Friday to visit scenes of earthquake destruction after completing his planned itineraries in Qingdao,'' spokesman Lee Dong-kwan was quoted as saying by Yonhap.
China’s foreign ministry stirs up trouble
S. Korea-U.S. alliance described as a ‘military alliance reminiscent of the Cold War’
» President Lee Myung-bak and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao greet the press before attending a reception on May 28.
There is a growing controversy after China’s foreign ministry likened the South Korean government’s push to strengthen its alliance with the United States to a "military alliance reminiscent of the Cold War." The comment came hours before President Lee was scheduled to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao during his visit to China this week, so some analysts say it could cause a diplomatic feud between the two nations. Some also said the remark was a diplomatic provocation.
1,000 Chinese Face Deportation
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
About 1,000 ethnic Koreans with Chinese nationality who overstayed their visas after arriving in Korea before August in 1992, face deportation, the Ministry of Justice said Tuesday. Seoul established diplomatic ties with Beijing on Aug. 24, 1992.
Their illegal residence has long been known about but the government has seldom forced them to leave the country for fear that forced departure would significantly damage property they have accumulated over the last decade or so.
Those to be deported will be prohibited from revisiting Korea for at least three years, it said. The government estimates around 1,300 ethnic Koreans with Chinese nationality live here without the government's permission.
[Refugee reception] [Double standards]
Lee, Hu Agree to Upgrade Bilateral Relationship
President Lee Myung-bak met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Tuesday. The two leaders agreed to upgrade the bilateral relationship from the current "comprehensive cooperation" to "strategic cooperation." Hu agreed to pay a return visit to Korea in the second half of this year.
Ties With China Require Delicate Handling
President Lee Myung-bak and Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Tuesday agreed to upgrade bilateral relations from the current "comprehensive cooperation" to "strategic cooperation."
China presently has no proper alliance with other nations, and its highest diplomatic relationship is the one forged with North Korea, termed a "traditional cooperative friendship." The "strategic cooperation" in theory equals China’s relationship with North Korea. At present, China has such partnerships with 18 countries including Russia and Pakistan.
Cloudy Weather as Lee Arrives in China
Beijing was shrouded in a severe sandstorm when President Lee Myung-bak landed at Beijing Capital International Airport on Tuesday. And it seems the skies reflected the views Chinese political leaders take of Lee.
Since his inauguration, Lee has focused on strengthening the Korea-U.S. alliance, and he visited Japan ahead of China, on his way back from the U.S. None of that was apt to endear him to the Chinese leadership.
S. Korea and China form strategic partnership
President Lee’s North Korea, U.S. policies could become obstacle to better ties between the two countries
» President Lee Myung-bak inspects Chinese troops with President of Chinese Hu Jintao in Beijing on May 27.
President Lee Myung-bak and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao had their first summit on May 27, after which they declared that the relationship between Korea and China would be upgraded from the current "cooperative partnership" to the level of a "strategic cooperative partnership." The South Korean government is touting the partnership as the biggest gain from the summit, calling it an "improvement" in relations between the two countries.
It is yet to be seen, however, whether ties between the two nations have been solidified enough to accommodate such diplomatic rhetoric.
In a press conference held after the summit, Hu made no mention of Lee’s primary North Korea policy, Vision 3000, under which the president promised to increase the North’s per capita GNP to US$3,000 within 10 years if Pyongyang fully abandons its nuclear weapons program. This is likely to have a negative effect on relations between the two countries where North Korea is concerned. In comparison, President Lee’s current North Korea policy gained support from both Washington and Tokyo during summits with the two countries held in April.
Chinese Crab Fishing Boats Crowd Korean Waters
Fishing boats are docked at a port on Yeonpyeong Island in the West Sea. Rising oil prices cause trouble for fishermen.
It is a bumper season for crab fishing in Yeonpyeong Island in the West Sea, with the catch standing at 44.3 tons in April, eight times more than the 5.5 tons caught a year ago. Yet fishermen in the island, far from rejoicing, complain they have had enough of Chinese fishing boats encroaching on their fishing grounds.
Last Saturday, some 100 fishing boats were tightly lined up off Seokdo Island, 1 km off the northernmost of Yeonpyeong Island. They all flew the red flags of China, working very close Northern Limit Line on the North Korean side
[NLL]
Lee Embarks on China Visit
President Lee Myung-bak pays a state visit to Beijing and Qingdao, China starting Tuesday. The visit comes amid criticism that Lee’s government is excessively focused on the U.S. in its foreign policy. China, as North Korea’s virtually sole ally, is a key partner in attempts to strip the North of its nuclear programs.
Inter-Korean relations have been stuck in a stalemate since the inauguration of the new administration, and building a close relationship with China is seen as the surest way to reopen channels of communication.
Big Business Entourage for Lee’s China Visit Named
Cheong Wa Dae on Monday finalized a list of 38 businesspeople who will accompany President Lee Myung-bak on a state visit to China on May 27- 30. Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan told reporters the president will be accompanied by 38 heads of conglomerates, small and medium sized business, and employers’ associations.
Dispelling Myths About Korean Business in China
One common belief about Korean businesses in China in the last 10 years has been that most of them will fail.
With labor costs rising substantially, the business environment is deteriorating and more Korean firms are moving to Vietnam and India, some say. And that is a mild version. There are also alarming rumors that Korean business owners have been assaulted, illegally detained and evicted with nothing but the shirt on their backs.
This year, the Chinese government enforced a new labor law, guaranteeing a retirement age for long-time employees and reinforcing unions. In the wake of the flight of some 100-odd Korean firms from Qingdao, there are rumors that Korean firms operating in China face mass bankruptcy.
In 2004, faced with rumors that Korean firms in China were in trouble, the Federation of Korean Industries and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency conducted large-scale surveys. They found that the opposite was the case. Businesses which said they were making profits or about to make profits accounted for 72.8 percent of respondents to the FKI poll and 86.8 percent to KOTRA's
Delegation of Indian Foreign Ministry Here
Pyongyang, May 26 (KCNA) -- A delegation of the Indian Foreign Ministry led by its Secretary N. Ravi arrived here on Monday.
It was greeted at the airport by officials concerned and the Indian ambassador to the DPRK.
NK, China Tighten Border to Curb Defections
By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
The North Korean and Chinese militaries have boosted their border patrols to stem the continuing outflow of North Korean refugees, an aid organization reported Sunday.
The report of intensified border control comes amid warnings that the Stalinist state is facing food shortages, though estimates differ on how severe the situation may be.
The U.S.-based Helping Hands Korea, citing eyewitness accounts of its members visiting the border region, said Chinese police are also intensifying house-to-house checks along border areas to crack down on refugees hiding out in ethnic Korean households living in China. The eyewitness accounts from Helping Hands Korea were reported Sunday by One Free Korea online.
President Ma set to usher in new era
Publication Date:05/23/2008
By Tso Lon-di and Allen Hsu
Ma Ying-jeou became the 12th-term president of the Republic of China May 20, pledging to further develop Taiwan's democracy while seeking peaceful relations with China.
"I sincerely hope that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can seize this historic opportunity to achieve peace and co-prosperity," Ma said in a 20-minute inauguration speech broadcast live nationwide and delivered before an audience of 15,000 at Taipei Arena in downtown Taipei.
"Under the principle of 'no unification, no independence and no use of force,' as Taiwan's mainstream public opinion holds it, and under the framework of the ROC Constitution, we will maintain the status quo in the Taiwan Strait."
Local firms favor China for low wages, growth potential
May 22, 2008
Despite recent deteriorations in the Chinese business environment, nearly four out of every 10 Korean companies with overseas units are considering investing in China within three years because of low wages and growth potential, a poll showed yesterday.
According to the poll of 365 South Korean companies taken by the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in April, 39.3 percent of respondents predicted China will be the most promising investment destination in three years.
The United States was 12.8 percent, then Vietnam with 9.6 percent, while 71.5 percent said they plan to expand their overseas presence.
In Ravaging China, Quake Pushes Tibet to Sidelines
Christian Hansen for The New York Times
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: May 22, 2008
As the Dalai Lama toured European capitals this week, the British prime minister closed the door to 10 Downing Street and agreed to meet him only as part of an "interfaith dialogue." In Germany, most government officials declined to talk with him at all.
It was a precipitous comedown from just a few weeks ago, when Tibetans and their supporters unexpectedly upstaged Beijing’s elaborate global torch relay and catapulted Tibet’s cause to the forefront of the world’s human rights agenda. The German and British leaders let it be known then that they would skip the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
The shift is, partly, tectonic. An earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province killed tens of thousands of Chinese, evoking an outpouring of global sympathy for China and turning it overnight from victimizer to victim.
Tibetan opponents of Beijing, like advocates of several other leading human rights causes, have been consigned once again to play David to China’s Goliath, struggling to compete with its growing diplomatic and economic clout worldwide.
Young Volunteers in Quake Zone Ultimately Find a Modest Mission
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 22, 2008; Page A14
FEISHUI, China -- Clad in a candy-striped shirt and red hiking boots, Li Xiaotang sat cross-legged on a matching red yoga mat in the middle of a mountain village near the epicenter of last week's earthquake.
Moved by the images of devastation on state-run television and motivated by tales of heroic rescues, Li and 14 other young Shanghai professionals had traveled 2 1/2 hours by plane and five more by car, at their own expense, to volunteer in the relief effort.
S. Korea and China agree to form strategic partnership
Upgrade brings bilateral relations between the two countries to their highest level
Posted on : May.21,2008 13:38 KST
At their summit meeting in Beijing on May 27, Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Chinese Premier Hu Jintao agreed to adopt a joint statement that elevates bilateral relations to a "strategic partnership," it has been learned.
A high-ranking government official said on May 20 that it had been decided to promote the relationship to a "strategic partnership" from one officially described as a "full cooperative partnership."
Senior Party and State Officials Visit Chinese Embassy
Pyongyang, May 20 (KCNA) -- Senior party and state officials visited the Chinese embassy here Tuesday to express condolences as regards the strong earthquake that hit Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province of China, claiming huge human losses.
Among them were Kim Yong Chun, Choe Thae Bok, Vice-Premier of the Cabinet Ro Tu Chol, Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun, Minister of Public Health Choe Chang Sik who is chairman of the Central Committee of the DPRK-China Friendship Association, acting Chairman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries Mun Jae Chol, and Vice Department Director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Pak Kyong Son.
U.S. Military Cites Growing China Space, Cyber Threat
By REUTERS
Published: May 20, 2008
Filed at 7:06 p.m. ET
Skip to next paragraph WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military painted China on Tuesday as posing a growing threat to the United States and others in space and cyberspace.
China is "aggressively" honing its ability to shoot down satellites along with other space and counter-space capabilities, said Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Horne of the U.S. Strategic Command.
But she praised two big Chinese companies sanctioned repeatedly in the past by the United States for alleged violations of international arms-export pacts.
McNerney said the United States had conferred with the two -- China North Industries Corp, or NORINCO, and China Great Wall Industries Co. Their response has been "very encouraging," she said.
"Both companies have adopted comprehensive internal compliance programs and are implementing policies to ensure that inadvertent transactions do not occur," she testified.
NORINCO, for example, had committed to not selling arms to North Korea and Iran and claims to have turned down more than $100 million in potential contracts with such governments, McNerney added.
[China confrontation] [Sanctions] [Imperialism] [Pressure]
China's soft-power failure
Li Datong
Beijing's triumphal Olympics year is turning tense, with the Tibetan and torch-relay protests now followed by the Sichuan earthquake. The Chinese government's response betrays a deficit in the way the country is ruled, says Li Datong
(This article was first published on 16 May 2008)
19 - 05 - 2008
The Chinese government planned the year of the Olympic games in Beijing on 8-24 August 2008 as a demonstration of the country's pride and confidence on the global stage. So far, it has not turned out that way. The Tibet protests in mid-March, and the disruption of the Olympic-torch relay that followed, have created confusion in government circles. Now, the earthquake in Sichuan on 12 May has presented the authorities with another severe challenge of management and public relations. A triumphal year is becoming ever more tense.
The official reaction to this series of events is part of a pattern that reveals much about how China is ruled and how its leaders think. In this sense, their response is not random but a case-study in the nature of modern governance in China.
[Softpower] [China confrontation]
Big Business Entourage for Lee’s China Visit Named
Cheong Wa Dae on Monday finalized a list of 38 businesspeople who will accompany President Lee Myung-bak on a state visit to China on May 27- 30. Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan told reporters the president will be accompanied by 38 heads of conglomerates, small and medium sized business, and employers’ associations.
DPRK Government Offers Aid to Quake-hit China
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- As already reported, a strong earthquake hit Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province of China on May 12.
This caused huge human and material losses to many areas around the province of China.
The DPRK government offered 100,000 U.S. dollars to the Chinese government to help people in the quake-stricken areas eradicate the aftermath of the disaster and bring their living to normal as early as possible.
Messages of Sympathy to China
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- The Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, the Central Committee of the DPRK-China Friendship Association, the Central Committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League and other institutions and social organizations sent messages of sympathy to their Chinese counterparts in connection with a strong earthquake that hit Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province of China on May 12, claiming huge human and material losses.
The messages expressed deep sympathy to the people in the quake-stricken areas.
Chinese Bulldozers Meet a Quake-Clogged Road, and Plow a Lifeline
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: May 18, 2008
BAIHUATAN, China — It is not a voyage for the faint of heart.
Chinese soldiers walked Saturday on a section of highway rerouted to follow an old riverside footpath, bypassing tons of rocks and earthquake debris blocking the regular way to Yingxiu.
Past the mangled cars, the wreckage of cliff-hugging homes and boulders the size of tractor trailers, the winding 40-mile road that connects the Chengdu Plain to the mountain towns of Wenchuan County comes to a sudden, nearly vertical end at this speck of a village.
North Korea offers aid for quake victims
The Associated Press
Saturday, May 17, 2008; 6:00 AM
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea is offering China $100,000 to help earthquake survivors.
The North's Korean Central News Agency said Saturday the country made the offer to China's government, which is scrambling to cope with the aftermath of Monday's magnitude 7.9 quake. It did not elaborate.
[Media]
Reception Given by Chinese Ambassador
Pyongyang, May 15 (KCNA) -- Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, hosted a reception at his embassy here on Wednesday in connection with the successful torch relay for the 29th Olympic Games in Pyongyang.
A military strategy to match peaceful rise
By Chen Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-16 07:40
China's military strategy is active defense. The world is in the process of major changes and adjustments. Peace and development remains the principal theme in today's world and the overall international security environment remains stable. But, uncertainties and destabilizing factors are on the increase. Traditional and non-traditional security issues are intertwined and the international community is increasingly facing comprehensive, diverse and complex security threats.
China's overall security environment remains sound. There is no real threat of large-scale enemy invasions. However, China's security still faces challenges that must not be neglected.
Modernizing a huge country of 1.3 billion people is an unprecedented exercise and China faces security issues that arise in the process of social, economic, ecological and other developments. Reform in China is at a critical stage, as there is much room for improvement in market economy, and we have become more dependent on the global economy. The three vicious forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism pose an increasingly grave threat to security in China's border areas
[Separatism] [China confrontation]
Ten years of the Bomb
By Zia Mian
5/16/2008
It is 10 years since India and Pakistan went openly nuclear. The dangers of a nuclear South Asia are becoming more and more apparent, yet the governments of the two countries continue to build their arsenals. Both countries continue to produce plutonium for more and more bombs, both countries have been testing new kinds of delivery vehicles and both countries have conducted war games assuming the use of nuclear weapons. The pursuit of nuclear weapons is beginning to take, as elsewhere in the world, a logic of its own. South Asia awaits a strong peace movement that will make the governments of India and Pakistan see reason.
[Nuclear weapons]
Inside the Tata Nano Factory
The tale of the creation and design of the world's cheapest car is one of innovation and ingenuity, both inside and outside Ratan Tata's organization
by Manjeet Kripalani
The Nano, nicknamed the "people's car", will cost $2,500 when it goes on sale later this year. Tata Motors
At Tata's Engineering Research Center, near the bucolic surroundings of the Tata Motors (TTM) factory in Pune, India, there are two cars on display. One is a complete prototype of the Nano, the $2,500 compact car Tata unveiled in January, which has all the essentials and safety features of India's higher-priced automobiles along with a sticker price that will forever change the economics of low-cost cars. The other is a neat bisection, with the car's innards clearly visible. "Every day we invite people to come and examine the car and ask: 'How can we make more savings?'" says Tata Motors Chief Executive Ravi Kant.
China quake toll ‘could reach 50,000’
By Geoff Dyer in Beijing and Jamil Anderlini in Beichuan County
Published: May 15 2008 14:05 | Last updated: May 15 2008 19:27
The death toll from Monday’s earthquake in China could reach as high as 50,000 people, the State Council said on Thursday, as rescue workers still struggled to reach some of the worst affected areas.
The number of deaths announced so far rose on Thursday to 19,500 in Sichuan province, the centre of the earthquake. However, the sharp escalation in the expected death toll indicates that hopes are fading for the tens of thousands of people who are still buried under collapsed buildings
The Chinese authorities have also begun to ask for assistance from overseas disaster experts to help the relief effort, having so far only accepted offers of money or supplies.
Japan, which has earthquake recovery expertise, said it was sending two groups of 30 rescue workers to China and they are expected to bring sniffer dogs and heat-sensing equipment.
Taiwan’s Red Cross is sending a team of disaster relief specialists, while the Taiwanese government is also sending a cargo plane of supplies to Sichuan, including tents and medical supplies.
Thousands protest over CNN commentator's anti-China remarks in San Francisco
www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-27 12:38:57 Print
LOS ANGELES, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Chinese Americans gathered in San Francisco Saturday to protest against CNN commentator Jack Cafferty's controversial remarks about Chinese products and people, and the network's supposed distorted reports on the recent riots in Tibet.
Some 5,000 people from the Chinese community in San Francisco and surrounding areas participated in the two-hour mass rally in front of CNN's local office building, calling for the firing of Cafferty and a sincere apology by CNN to ethnic Chinese people allover the world.
Saturday's event was the latest in a series of protests by Chinese Americans across the United States after Cafferty said in a live show earlier this month that Chinese products were "junk" and the Chinese were "basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years."
[China confrontation] [Reassertion]
Historical Tremors
By SIMON WINCHESTER
Published: May 15, 2008
San Francisco
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Post a Comment »IT is a cruel and poignant certainty that the children who died in the wreckage of their school during the earthquake this week in Dujiangyan, China, knew all too well that their country once led the world in the knowledge of the planet’s seismicity.
They would have been taught, and proudly, that almost 2,000 years ago an astronomer named Chang Heng invented the world’s first seismoscope. It was a bizarrely imagined creation, with its centerpiece a large bronze vessel surrounded by eight dragons, each holding a sphere in its mouth.
[Bizarre]
Taiwan, China launch joint relief mechanism
The China Post news staff
Volunteers and planeloads of more than 150 metric tons of relief goods from Taiwan will arrive in the disaster area hit by a devastating earthquake in China's Sichuan Province today, marking the launch of the first ever joint relief operation between Taiwan and China.
Part of the joint relief mechanism is the large-scale humanitarian direct charter cross-strait flight service between the two former rivals.
There are currently more than one million of Taiwanese people living, working or studying in various cities in China.
[Straits]
Lee to Visit China on May 27
President Lee Myung-bak will visit Beijing and Qingdao from May 27 to 30 and meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao, presidential spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan said Tuesday. In his first visit to China since his inauguration, Lee "will lay the framework for development of a future-oriented Korea-Chinese relations by taking the overall bilateral relationship of cooperation to a higher-level partnership, and will consolidate peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia," the spokesman said.
Bombs kill at least 60 in India’s Jaipur
By Amy Yee in New Delhi
Published: May 13 2008 19:23 | Last updated: May 13 2008 19:23
Bomb blasts killed at least 60 people on Tuesday night in the northern city of Jaipur in India’s worst terrorist attack this year.
In a carefully orchestrated attack, a series of at least five explosions tore through crowded markets at about 7.45pm, according to news reports. Some 150 people were injured, said Vasudhara Raje, chief minister of the state of Rajasthan.
The "medium intensity" blasts occurred within 15 minutes of each other in a historic section of Jaipur near tourist sites and in congested markets. One bomb exploded near a Hindu temple that was packed with evening worshippers
Indian Communists to block nuclear deal
By Amy Yee in New Delhi and Daniel Dombey in Washington
Published: May 12 2008 16:48 | Last updated: May 12 2008 16:48
India’s main Communist party has vowed to continue to block approval of a landmark civil nuclear deal, saying it will not be ratified in time during the administration of US president George W. Bush.
Sitaram Yechury, a member of the poliburo of the Communist party of India (Marxist), said negotiations scheduled for later this month with its allies in India’s Congress-led government were unlikely to lead to a breakthrough.
The result was that the deal was "off" as far as the Communists were concerned, he told the Financial Times in an interview. "It will not take off before [President Bush] leaves office," Mr Yechury said.
"We are not against nuclear energy and nuclear co-operation, but only against the terms the deal has come under."
[Nuclear deal]
Singh visits remote state contested by China
By Jo Johnson in New Delhi
Published: February 1 2008 00:26 | Last updated: February 1 2008 00:26
Manmohan Singh on Thursday became the first Indian prime minister to visit Arunachal Pradesh in nearly a decade, reflecting concern in New Delhi at persistent Chinese claims to the remote and sparsely-populated north-eastern state.
Beijing claims 90,000 sq km of land in Arunachal Pradesh, which borders Tibet, Bhutan and Burma. New Delhi in turn says China is occupying 38,000 sq km of Indian territory in Kashmir illegally ceded to it by Pakistan.
While India and China have recently enjoyed a surge in bilateral trade and managed to co-ordinate their approach to international climate change negotiations, political relations remain strained by failure to settle the border, cause of a brief war in 1962.
During his two-day visit to a state whose development has lagged far behind that of Tibet, Mr Singh will inaugurate two hydroelectric plants and lay the foundation stone of a new parliament building in Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh
[Border war]
Kim Jong Il Sends Message of Sympathy to Hu Jintao
Pyongyang, May 13 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il Tuesday sent a message of sympathy to Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the C.C., the Communist Party of China and President of the People's Republic of China.
The message said:
Upon hearing the sad news that a strong earthquake hit Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province of your country, claiming huge human and material losses, I send deep sympathy and consolation to you and, through you, to the Communist Party and the government of China and the people in the quake-hit area.
I hope that your people will eradicate the aftermath of the disaster as early as possible under the leadership of the CPC.
Lee to Hold Summit With Hu
By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-Bak will make a four-day state visit to China from May 27 for summit talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Cheong Wa Dae announced Tuesday.
China will mark the third destination of Lee for his overseas visit as president, following the United States and Japan in April. Russia will likely be the fourth target
Premier Wen arrives in Chengdu, heading for epicentre
CHENGDU, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Premier Wen Jiabao flew into southwest China's Sichuan Province on Monday afternoon and left straight for the quake-hit county of Wenchuan, 159 kilometers from the provincial capital of Chengdu, to oversee rescue work.
Wen said during his flight that the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council were closely monitoring the disaster relief work after Monday's earthquake.
"I will be in charge of relief work headquarters that has been set up with eight departments covering rescue work, earthquake forecasting and monitoring and other aspects," Wen said
China: Superpower or Basket Case?
Samuel A. Bleicher | May 8, 2008
China as an “emerging superpower” makes for a compelling story line in the media. It is reinforced by the propaganda image that the current Chinese leadership would like us to accept. But the reality is quite different. Although recent events in Tibet and western China – and the central government’s response – appear to be generating pro-government patriotic feelings, they dramatically display the practical limits of the government’s power. Other sources of unhappiness with the regime, including income disparities and the inevitable collapse of unsustainable price controls on fuel and food, could breed both urban and rural discontent that has no ready outlet besides unlawful opposition to the government.
Debt woes drive thousands of Indian farmers to suicide
By SAM DOLNICK
KOCHI, India (AP) — On the last night of his life, the farmer walked into his dusty fields, choked down pesticide and waited to die.
He owed more than $1,000 to banks and moneylenders and he had told his wife that if the cotton harvest was bad this year, he would kill himself.
But the farmers say their plight is largely being ignored as the country rushes to embrace the global marketplace. Few find it reassuring that India's agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, doubles as the nation's top cricket official.
A decade ago, the government began cutting farm subsidies as it liberalized the managed socialist economy. The farmers' costs rose as the tariffs that had protected their products were lowered. It was a combination, analysts say, that made small farms even harder to sustain.
[Globalisation]
Weapons build-up is of little use
By Farhan Bokhari, Special to Gulf News
Published: May 10, 2008, 23:37
India's decision to test its three 3,000km range Agni-III missile on Wednesday must be characterised as crazy. It is one thing to aspire to become a regional power, with a rising defence expenditure and a large military force. But aiming for long range missiles which go well beyond the range required to hit crucial targets in countries like China or Pakistan, is an obvious matter of an overkill.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/india-brushes-off-nam-comments-on-nuclear-cooperation_10045752.html
India brushes off NAM comments on nuclear cooperation
May 6th, 2008 - 8:26 pm ICT by admin - Email This Post
New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) India Tuesday brushed off comments by Iran and other Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) members asking the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to forbid any cooperation with those countries who have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). “They have certain viewpoints. We respect that,” former foreign secretary Shyam Saran told reporters when asked about observations of certain NAM countries at the meeting of the preparatory committee for the 2010 NPT review conference in Geneva.
[NPT]
Incoming premier opens door to China investment
Publication Date:05/09/2008 Section:Front Page
By John Scott Marchant
In an interview with a local television channel, premier-designate Liu Chao-shiuan said that he welcomed investment from China in Taiwan's planned infrastructure projects and would revise regulations to achieve this goal.
Liu's comments came during a Chinese Television System News broadcast May 1. This was the first media tete-a-tete he had engaged in since accepting Ma's invitation to head up the new Cabinet April 11, and was seen as a way of easing possible public concern about his leadership and future policies.
During the one-hour interview, the incoming premier talked about investment from China and other key issues, including the appointment of Lai Shin-yuan as the next head of the Mainland Affairs Council, fuel and electricity prices, his expectations of future Cabinet members and the tourism sector.
But it was Liu's response to investment interest from China in president-elect Ma Ying-jeou's "i-Taiwan 12 projects"--expressed to vice president-elect Vincent Siew when he attended the Boao Forum for Asia on Hainan Island in Southern China last month--that captured headlines. The designated premier described China's interest as a "good start," adding that he would not block foreign investment in the projects and other infrastructure plans.
[ODI]
In India, Death to Global Business
How a violent—and spreading—Maoist insurgency threatens the country's runaway growth
Raising arms: A Naxalite exercise in the central state of Chhattisgarh Namas Bhojani
by Manjeet Kripalani
On the night of Apr. 24, a group of 300 men and women, armed with bows and arrows and sickles and led by gun-wielding commanders, emerged swiftly and silently from the dense forest in India's Chhattisgarh state. The guerrillas descended on an iron ore processing plant owned by Essar Steel, one of India's biggest companies. There the attackers torched the heavy machinery on the site, plus 53 buses and trucks. Press reports say they also left a note: Stop shipping local resources out of the state—or else.
The assault on the Essar facility was the work of Naxalites—Maoist insurgents who seek the violent overthrow of the state and who despise India's landowning and business classes. The Naxalites have been slowly but steadily spreading through the countryside for decades
The Naxalites may move next on India's cities, where outsourcing, finance, and retailing are thriving. Insurgents who embed themselves in the slums of Mumbai don't have to overrun a call center to cast a pall over the India story. "People in the cities think India is strong and Naxalism will fizzle out," says Bhibhu Routray, the top Naxal expert at New Delhi's Institute for Conflict Management. "Yet considering what has happened in Nepal"—where Maoists have just taken over the government—"it could happen here as well. States, capitals, districts could all be taken over."
Will China Welcome a Mid-Range Hotel?
Hotel Jen marries high design with smart business strategy as it targets an overlooked—and growing—sector of the hotel market
by Matt Vella
The Chinese hotel boom continues. This March yet another new property opened its doors in Hong Kong's bustling Western District. But Hotel Jen, as the newcomer is called, is unlike any of the myriad other brands that have sprouted in China's fast-growing hospitality market.
China eyes overseas land in food push
By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
Published: May 8 2008 19:26 | Last updated: May 8 2008 19:26
Chinese companies will be encouraged to buy farmland abroad, particularly in Africa and South America, to help guarantee food security under a plan being considered by Beijing.
A proposal drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture would make supporting offshore land acquisition by domestic agricultural companies a central government policy. Beijing already has similar policies to boost offshore investment by state-owned banks, manufacturers and oil companies, but offshore agricultural investment has so far been limited to a few small projects.
[ODI]
Up, up and frittered away
Brahma Chellaney May 08, 2008
First Published: 22:30 IST(8/5/2008)
Last Updated: 22:35 IST(8/5/2008)
As the country observes this Sunday the 10th anniversary of the nuclear tests that enabled it to gatecrash the nuclear-weapons club, India stands out as a reluctant and tentative nuclear power, still chanting the disarmament mantra while conspicuously lacking even a barely minimal deterrent capability against China. Given that May 11 also coincides with the 34th anniversary of Pokhran I, it is important to remember that no country has struggled longer to build a minimal deterrent or paid heavier international costs for its nuclear programme than India.
[Nuclear weapons] [China India relations] [Border war]
Arms expert says China making dramatic improvements to nuclear arsenal
The Associated Press
Published: May 8, 2008
BEIJING: A leading arms expert said Thursday that China is making dramatic improvements to its nuclear arsenal, raising questions for future arms control efforts.
Recent upgrades have increased the accuracy and mobility of China's arsenal, while a switch from liquid to solid fuel has shortened reaction times, said Bates Gill, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
"China stands out in its effort to modernize, expand and improve its nuclear weapons capability," Gill said at a panel for journalists while on a visit to Beijing to promote the institute's annual report on the global arms industry.
China says it will never be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict, and its arsenal, estimated at just over 100 nuclear-armed missiles, is the smallest of the five main nuclear weapon powers. China signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1992 and Gill said the recent steps are aimed mainly at reducing the vulnerability of China's deterrent force.
[nuclear weapons]
China Willing to Engage on Tibet: Dalai Lama Envoy
By REUTERS
Published: May 8, 2008
DHARAMSALA, India (Reuters) - An envoy to the Dalai Lama said on Thursday Chinese negotiators had shown a willingness to engage with the Tibetan side during recent talks, despite major differences on important issues.
"There were strong and divergent views on the nature as well as the causes of the recent tragic events in Tibet," the envoy, Lodi Gyari, said in a statement issued in Dharamsala, home of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
"These views were expressed in a frank and candid manner."
Bright Lights and Big Money in India’s New Cricket League
By Somini Sengupta
Published: May 7, 2008
NAVI MUMBAI, India — With an infusion of bling, Bollywood and go-go boots, a new cricket league is trying to spin off India’s colonial inheritance into a money-making symbol of a brash, emerging nation.
A new cricket league in India has enlivened a traditional game with laser shows, movie stars and cheerleaders.
Whether the Indian Premier League, as it is called, will ultimately succeed in cultivating a loyal fan base at home, challenging cricket’s world order and globalizing the game of the former British Empire remains to be seen. Already, it has upturned many conventions of an erstwhile gentleman’s game, drawn corporate sponsorships from multinational firms selling everything from cellphones to real estate and, with salaries comparable to the English Premier League of soccer, lured some of the top names in international cricket, including players from India’s traditional rivals, like Australia and even Pakistan.
Letter of Thanks and Gift to Kim Jong Il from Chinese Ambassador to DPRK
Pyongyang, May 6 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il was presented with a letter and gift by Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, expressing thanks to him for the successful torch relay for the 29th Olympic Games held in Pyongyang.
The letter and gift were conveyed to Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, by Liu Xiaoming on May 5.
Kim Yong Nam Meets Chinese Ambassador to DPRK
Pyongyang, May 6 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met with Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, and had a friendly talk with him at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on May 5.
Expressing thanks to the party, government and people of the DPRK for rendering sincere help in the torch relay for the 29th Olympic Games held in Pyongyang, Liu Xiaoming noted that this event marked an occasion in boosting the friendly relations between the peoples of China and the DPRK.
Noting that it is the steadfast policy of the party and government of China to steadily consolidate and develop the Sino-DPRK friendly ties, he stressed that China would make positive efforts to boost the friendship with the DPRK in the future, too.
On hand were Kim Thae Jong, vice department director of the C.C., the Workers' Party of Korea, and staff members of the Chinese embassy here.
Hillary's China-Bashing
Every election cycle, somebody likes to bash China. (Remember Bill Clinton accusing George Bush of coddling "butchers in Beijing"?) China is an easy target, and bashing it is fun because it’s so much simpler to blame foreigners for our troubles than to focus on our own issues. But more broadly, I think, making a case for relations with China is tough for politicians who feel the need to dumb-down their rhetoric and identify an enemy.
Let’s take Hillary Clinton as an example. After mowing down NAFTA, Clinton has now turned her anti-aircraft heavy machine gun toward China. Here are a few snippets from her campaign:
"We do have to get tough on China," she said on Sunday while campaigning in North Carolina, which has seen a loss of more than 200,000 factory jobs since 2001. "It is long past time for us to blow the whistle."
[China confrontation] [Offshoring]
Millions Use Samsung SDS’s Metro System in China, India
Automatic doors and vending machines in operation at a Guangzhou Metro Line 3 station, opened in 2005. Samsung SDS is providing the same package to subways in Beijing and Delhi. / Courtesy of Samsung SDS
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
Traffic congestion is one of the major concerns that has unnerved Beijing's officials, as the Olympic Games will bring an unprecedented number of visitors to the city in August. Introduction of an ``athlete-only'' lane is one of the measures they are considering. But a more fundamental relief will come from the addition of three new subway lines, in which Korea's Samsung SDS is playing a crucial role.
The company has provided an automatic fare collection (AFC) system at 26 stations on Line 10 and the Olympic Spur line, which will open at the end of June. The cutting-edge automated system will replace the 30-year-old paper tickets of Beijing metro in order to reduce the hustle and bustle at the ticket gates ? ``Beijing Subway to Bid Farewell to Paper Tickets,'' the state-run People's Daily proclaimed.
Taiwan's Vice Premier Under Suspicion in Scandal Over Diplomatic Outreach Funds
By Jane Rickards
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 6, 2008; Page A13
TAIPEI, Taiwan, May 5 -- Taiwanese prosecutors announced Monday that Vice Premier Chiou I-jen is suspected of corruption in connection with a diplomatic scandal involving an alleged attempt to defraud the government of nearly $30 million.
Chiou was responsible for choosing two intermediaries who were entrusted with the money in 2006 as part of an attempt to induce the Pacific country of Papua New Guinea to grant diplomatic recognition to Taiwan. Senior officials said the two men hoodwinked the Foreign Ministry and took the money for themselves.
Chinese call for South Korean boycott
Deportation of Chinese protester causes netizens to mount support for boycott of South Korean products
» Chinese students who are currently studying in South Korea shout in protest at the pro-Tibet demonstrators during the Olympic torch relay in Seoul on April 27.
Chinese netizens are urging their compatriots to boycott South Korean products in an apparent retaliation for the Seoul government’s recent decision to deport Chinese student involved in violent protests during the Olympic torch relay. The intent of their message seemed to be to show their strong consumer power. Previously, this was proven during a similar boycott campaign against Carrefour.
[Consumer boycott]
Envoys for Dalai Lama, China to Meet Again
Officials Resume Talks in Effort to Ease Tension
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 5, 2008; Page A11
BEIJING, May 5 -- Chinese officials and representatives of the Dalai Lama resumed talks Sunday for the first time in nearly a year and agreed to hold another round of discussions at a later date, sources told the New China News Agency.
Both sides "expressed their views on relevant matters," the state-run news service said, and agreed to meet again "at an appropriate time."
Earlier Sunday, President Hu Jintao said in Beijing that he hoped the talks, at a state guesthouse in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, would have a "positive outcome."
[Separatism]
Conflict in the South China Sea: China’s Relations with Vietnam and the Philippines
Ian Storey
Part I Trouble and Strife in the South China Sea: Vietnam and China
A source of serious interstate tension between some members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China for much of the 1990s, territorial disputes in the South China Sea became less contentious in the early 2000s: A less assertive stance by China being a critical component in Beijing’s Southeast Asian “smile diplomacy,” a diplomatic offensive designed to assuage the ASEAN countries’ security concerns vis-à-vis a rising China. Recent controversies, however, have underscored the seemingly intractable nature of the dispute and the continued sensitivity over sovereignty issues, particularly between the main protagonists: Vietnam, China, and the Philippines. In the first part of a two-part series, this article examines the impact of the dispute on Vietnam’s relations with the PRC.
Up against the Citi limits
By Henny Sender
Published: May 4 2008 18:39 | Last updated: May 4 2008 18:39
Wall Street’s finest were on the edge of their seats last December when at least two of China’s most important financiers paid separate visits to New York. Leading US commercial and investment banks were facing huge losses as the year-end approached and were in urgent need of a capital infusion, preferably one that could be announced at the same time as their annual results.
But Chinese money is perhaps the most desirable, largely because of the centuries-old siren song of the Chinese market. Senior executives at supplicant banks say they like Chinese capital because they can present their China deals to the rest of the world as great strategic initiatives rather than merely a form of rescue finance.
[SWF] [ODI]
ArcelorMittal in talks with Angang Steel
By Peter Marsh in London
Published: May 4 2008 22:01 | Last updated: May 5 2008 01:49
ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel producer, has held informal discussions with Angang Steel about working with China’s second-largest steel company in an effort to extend its presence in the country.
India’s Hindujas plans to spend $50bn
By Joe Leahy in Mumbai
Published: May 4 2008 22:07 | Last updated: May 5 2008 01:43
The Hinduja business family is planning investments of about $50bn in the next five years in India and abroad, led by a planned foray into oil and gas in Iran.
The closely held group, run by four billionaire Indian brothers, is also planning large investments in real estate, automotives, power and infrastructure, mostly in India, Europe and the Middle East.
"There are a number of opportunities we are studying and there is no shortage of money," Gopichand Hinduja, one of the four brothers and co-chairman of the group, said in an interview.
Key to the group’s strategy in India is to build on the family’s historic ties with Iran, where it was based until the late 1970s.
[ODI]
India and Globalisation
January 25 2008
Inside this issue
• India should not be tempted by the state-led Chinese economic model
• Cisco invests in a lavish Bangalore research centre to lure local talent
• Tata’s ambitions amid corporate drive for global acquisitions - -
Ghost road to boost India-China trade
By Jo Johnson
Published: October 19 2007 17:37 | Last updated: October 22 2007 12:07
Overgrown and disused for much of the last 60 years, a ghost road that connects India to China via Burma will soon reappear on maps of the region.
Dismissed by Winston Churchill as a "laborious task, unlikely to be finished until the need for it has passed", the construction of the road claimed the lives of 1,100 US servicemen and many more local labourers during the second world war.
Although India was critical of a previous Burmese crackdown in 1988, it began to reverse policy in the early 1990s, judging that its moralising had been counter-productive and was adversely affecting national security interests by pushing the junta into China’s arms.
China has already converted its own 680km stretch into a six-lane highway and is helping to rebuild much of the road inside Burma. India is further behind, expecting to complete the transformation of a single-lane track ridden with pot-holes into a two-lane highway by March.
New Delhi, keen to connect India’s insurgency-ridden north-east with the fast-growing markets of south-west China and south-east Asia, is also expected to help build part of the 1,000km-long Burmese section.
[China India relations] [Separatism] [Double standards]
Conflict in the South China Sea: China’s Relations with Vietnam and the Philippines
Ian Storey
Part I Trouble and Strife in the South China Sea: Vietnam and China
A source of serious interstate tension between some members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China for much of the 1990s, territorial disputes in the South China Sea became less contentious in the early 2000s: A less assertive stance by China being a critical component in Beijing’s Southeast Asian “smile diplomacy,” a diplomatic offensive designed to assuage the ASEAN countries’ security concerns vis-à-vis a rising China. Recent controversies, however, have underscored the seemingly intractable nature of the dispute and the continued sensitivity over sovereignty issues, particularly between the main protagonists: Vietnam, China, and the Philippines. In the first part of a two-part series, this article examines the impact of the dispute on Vietnam’s relations with the PRC.
Up against the Citi limits
By Henny Sender
Published: May 4 2008 18:39 | Last updated: May 4 2008 18:39
Wall Street’s finest were on the edge of their seats last December when at least two of China’s most important financiers paid separate visits to New York. Leading US commercial and investment banks were facing huge losses as the year-end approached and were in urgent need of a capital infusion, preferably one that could be announced at the same time as their annual results.
But Chinese money is perhaps the most desirable, largely because of the centuries-old siren song of the Chinese market. Senior executives at supplicant banks say they like Chinese capital because they can present their China deals to the rest of the world as great strategic initiatives rather than merely a form of rescue finance.
[SWF] [ODI]
ArcelorMittal in talks with Angang Steel
By Peter Marsh in London
Published: May 4 2008 22:01 | Last updated: May 5 2008 01:49
ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel producer, has held informal discussions with Angang Steel about working with China’s second-largest steel company in an effort to extend its presence in the country.
India’s Hindujas plans to spend $50bn
By Joe Leahy in Mumbai
Published: May 4 2008 22:07 | Last updated: May 5 2008 01:43
The Hinduja business family is planning investments of about $50bn in the next five years in India and abroad, led by a planned foray into oil and gas in Iran.
The closely held group, run by four billionaire Indian brothers, is also planning large investments in real estate, automotives, power and infrastructure, mostly in India, Europe and the Middle East.
"There are a number of opportunities we are studying and there is no shortage of money," Gopichand Hinduja, one of the four brothers and co-chairman of the group, said in an interview.
Key to the group’s strategy in India is to build on the family’s historic ties with Iran, where it was based until the late 1970s.
[ODI]
China to build 93,000-ton atomic-powered aircraft carrier: source
Vessel to be on par with latest U.S. carrier, according to data
» Decommissioned Russian antisubmarine carrier Kiev that China bought in 2000.
China has been pushing ahead with construction of a mega-sized nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be completed in 2020, according to a Chinese Communist Party's dossier.
A source close to Chinese military affairs said on March 27 that China has been promoting the construction of a 93,000-ton atomic-powered carrier under a plan titled the "085 Project." The nation also has a plan to build a 48,000-ton non-nuclear-powered carrier under the so-called "089 Project," added the source.
[China confrontation]
Tiger economies are snapping at US heels
But it's not clear whether Beijing or New Delhi will catch up first
Richard Wachman The Observer, Sunday May 4 2008
China and India and are moving toward becoming the biggest economies in the world: with 2.4bn people, or 40 per cent of the world's population and annual GDP growth rates of between 8 per cent and 10 per cent, experts say that they could one day overtake the US.
Tea, cars, steel, IT... Tata, the headiest brew in the world
India's extraordinary conglomerate has found unique solutions to many of its problems. But it's still unclear what will happen when the boss retires
Heather Connon in Mumbai The Observer, Sunday May 4 2008
The favourite boast of executives of the Tata Group is that it accompanies the average Indian throughout the day. They wake to the alarm of its Titan clocks, drink its tea or coffee for breakfast, wear clothes bought from its Westside shopping centres, take a Tata car or bus to work on a computer set up by Tata Consultancy Services, lunch in a Tata hotel, arrange their evening appointments on a Tata mobile phone and use Tata power to light their homes.
These days, the influence of the Indian conglomerate is spreading beyond its home country. Back in 2000, it made the first major acquisition by an Indian group when it acquired the Tetley tea company; last year, that was trumped when it bought steelmaker Corus for £6.2bn, while in March it was confirmed as the purchaser of British icons Jaguar and Land-Rover from Ford. Next month, it will make its first foray into UK financial services when New Star launches an Indian investment fund that will be managed by Tata Asset Management.
Camel demand soars in India
By Jo Johnson in New Delhi
Published: May 2 2008 19:05 | Last updated: May 2 2008 19:05
Farmers in the Indian state of Rajasthan are rediscovering the humble camel.
As the cost of running gas-guzzling tractors soars, even-toed ungulates are making a comeback, raising hopes that a fall in the population of the desert state’s signature animal can be reversed.
Dalai Lama's Envoys Heading to China
Informal Talks to Focus on Unrest in Tibetan Areas, Beijing's Response
The Dalai Lama, front left, with Tibetan Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche, center, and Minister of Religion Tsering Phuntsok in Dharmsala, India, where the exiled government is based. (By Ashwini Bhatia -- Associated Press)
By Jill Drew
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, May 3, 2008; Page A08
BEIJING, May 3 -- Representatives of the Dalai Lama are scheduled to arrive in China on Saturday to begin informal talks with their Chinese counterparts on the unrest in Tibet.
The meetings will be the first face-to-face contact between the two sides since talks broke off last summer. Protests in March against Chinese rule in Tibet swelled into a violent uprising, including a deadly riot in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on March 14.
The informal discussions come as a team of 50 Olympic torchbearers and support staff were nearing the summit of Mount Everest in Tibet, the most controversial leg of the global torch relay. News from the mountain has been tightly controlled and the small group of journalists accompanying the journey was not told exactly how close the climbers were to the summit.
Chinese Students in U.S. Fight View of Their Home
By SHAILA DEWAN
Published: April 29, 2008
LOS ANGELES — When the time came for the smiling Tibetan monk at the front of the University of Southern California lecture hall to answer questions, the Chinese students who packed the audience for the talk last Tuesday had plenty to lob at their guest:
If Tibet was not part of China, why had the Chinese emperor been the one to give the Dalai Lama his title? How did the tenets of Buddhism jibe with the "slavery system" in Tibet before China’s modernization efforts? What about the Dalai Lama’s connection to Hitler?
[Reassertion] [Country image] [China confrontation]
For Chinese, a Shift in Mood, From Hospitable to Hostile
Foreign Protests, Media Coverage Lead Many to Regard Outsiders as Adversaries
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; Page A10
BEIJING, April 28 -- At an airport in northeast China, a young security guard recently spotted a foreign airline passenger with shaving cream in his carry-on bag. "No," he said sternly, wagging his finger like a cross schoolteacher. "No, no, no."
In a country where airport security is unfailingly polite and efficient, the guard's stiff attitude spoke volumes.
Just weeks ago, most Chinese were welcoming foreigners as Olympic guests and partners in the country's meteoric economic development. But as the country enters the final 100 days before the Olympic Games in Beijing, the mood has changed. Many Chinese have begun to regard foreigners as adversaries interfering in domestic affairs or, at worst, bigots unwilling to accept China's emergence as a great power.
[Reassertion]
Some Chinese exporters prefer euros to dollars
By Keith Bradsher Published: April 29, 2008
GUANGZHOU, China: Facing the double-barreled threat of a falling dollar and weakening American demand, some Chinese exporters are starting to ask European customers to pay in euros.
Others are trying to increase domestic sales. This, in a nation whose economic juggernaut was built on exports.
Drastic times call for drastic measures. And the dollar's accelerating fall against China's currency — down 4 percent so far this year, after dropping 7 percent last year — has left businesses across China nursing losses and trying to figure out how to raise prices for overseas buyers, Chinese executives and sales representatives said in interviews here at the Canton Trade Fair, which runs through Wednesday.
[Reserve] [Decline]
Korea Promises Firm Action Against Chinese Protestors
The Cabinet on Tuesday decided to take a firm legal action against violent Chinese demonstrators during the Olympic torch relay on Sunday, Vice Culture Minister Shin Jae-min said Tuesday.
In the meeting, Prime Minister Han Seung-soo called for dealing with the violence "according to law and principle." "Our national pride has been hurt considerably by the incident, so legal and diplomatic measures to restore national pride will have to follow," Shin quoted Han as saying.
Following Seoul leg of torch relay, threat of anti-Chinese backlash
Chinese nationals cite pride and passion for Olympics, Korean netizens flood Internet with hostile comments
South Korean citizens and Internet users have strongly criticized some of the Chinese nationals living here for holding violent demonstrations during the South Korea leg of the Olympic torch relay on April 27. However, some are calling for a calm response, saying that any nationalistic overreaction could ignite the spread of the anti-Chinese backlash.
After the Seoul relay, a flood of harsh, anti-China commentary flooded Internet bulletin boards in South Korea. On a public debate bulletin board located on the Internet portal site Daum, an Internet user with the nickname Jesus wrote, "The Olympics, despite its reputation as a global stage for peace, turned into a public relations site for Chinese nationalism and Sino-centrism."
[China confrontation]
Talks between Foreign Ministers of DPRK and China Held
Beijing, April 28 (KCNA) -- Talks between DPRK Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi were held in Beijing on April 28.
Present there from the DPRK side were the foreign minister's party and Choe Jin Su, DPRK ambassador to China, and from the Chinese side He Yafei, assistant to the foreign minister, and other officials concerned.
At the talks both sides informed each other of the situation in their countries and exchanged views on the issue of boosting the relations of friendship between the two countries and matters of mutual concern.
In India, Even Gods Are Going Hungry
Poor Struggle to Donate to Temples as Food Prices Skyrocket
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 30, 2008; Page A10
NEW DELHI -- Every morning, Hindu devotees haul buckets of fresh, creamy milk into this neighborhood temple, then close their eyes and bow in prayer as the milk is used to bathe a Hindu deity. At the foot of the statue, they leave small baskets of bananas, coconuts, incense sticks and marigolds.
But recently, Ram Gopal Atrey, the head priest at Prachin Hanuman Mandir, noticed donations thinning for the morning prayers. He knew exactly why: inflation.
Kim Jong Il Sends Message of Sympathy to Hu Jintao
Pyongyang, April 30 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, Tuesday sent a message of sympathy to Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and president of the People's Republic of China.
The message said:
Upon hearing the sad news that a serious train accident occurred in your country, claiming huge casualties, I express deep sympathy and consolation to you and, through you, to the Communist Party and government of China and the families of the victims.
I am convinced that the government and people of China will eradicate the aftermath of the accident at the earliest possible date under the leadership of the Communist Party of China with you as general secretary.
Seoul to Tighten Visa Rules for Chinese Students
A member from a civic group holds a placard calling for the cancellation of China’s Olympic Games 2008 in front of a police agency in Seoul, Wednesday. A civic group representative filed a complaint with police against Chinese Ambassador, Ning Fukui, claming he should also be held accountable for the violence by Chinese students during the Olympic torch relay on Sunday. / Yonhap
By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
South Korea said Thursday that it will toughen entry visa rules for Chinese students in the wake of their violent protests during a recent Olympic torch relay in Seoul.
``We are going to talk with the related authorities over steps to toughen the issuance of entry visas for Chinese students and other Chinese people,'' said Moon Tae-young, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
A Dynastic Scion Meets the People
Rahul Gandhi, Grandson of Indira, Reaches Out To Poor With Tour of the 'Forgotten Part of India'
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 1, 2008; Page A10
KUMHARPADA, India -- Hundreds of barefoot villagers left their chores and ran toward the giant cloud of dust blown by a descending helicopter. When the dust settled, a young bespectacled man with dimples and a shy smile stepped out in crisp white tunic and pants, waving to the people. The excited villagers immediately rushed to touch him, creating a near-stampede and sending his security team into a tizzy.
Rahul Gandhi, 37, general secretary of India's ruling Congress party, is used to such frenzied welcomes when he shows up at far-flung, impoverished villages across India. He is, after all, the newest heir apparent of a political dynasty that ranks as India's most powerful -- one that has produced three generations of prime ministers, including Indira Gandhi, his late grandmother.
The Ugly Chinese
Move over ugly American, make room for the ugly Chinese.
John Pomfret
In Seoul on Sunday, groups of Chinese students accosted protesters demonstrating against China's treatment of North Korean refugees and Beijing's policies in Tibet. The attacks by the Chinese occurred as the Olympic torch wended its way on its seemingly never-ending journey around the world. The South Korean government was justifiably angry. China, after initially denying the events occurred, has now taken steps to still the waters. But the damage has been done. China's angry youth - called "fen qing" in Chinese - are ruining their country's reputation around the world and spelling the end of a decade-long honeymoon that the world has had with China.
[China confrontation]
Video Clips Inflame Anger at Chinese Violence in Korea
An anti-Olympic protester stages a protest in front of Chinese students around the Olympic Park in Seoul on Sunday. /AP
Koreans were initially surprised and awed when thousands of Chinese flags spread across central Seoul, wondering what in the world brought those young Chinese people out in force. At first it seemed a show of patriotic enthusiasm - but that impression soured when, the next morning, video clips of Chinese students beating up anti-Chinese protesters and Korean police officers surfaced online. The clips show some 100 Chinese crowding in on several Koreans protesting against China’s repression in Tibet in the lobby of the Seoul Plaza Hotel in the heart of the capital, beating them with flagpoles and fists, and kicking them. Riot police were sandwiched in the middle, and some of them were also beaten.
Chinese students studying in Korea posted messages like "Let’s smash them with eggs" and arranging to meet at the Olympic Park on Sunday. The response has been a surge in anti-Chinese sentiment here, the anger of Korean posters directed at violence by Chinese people in the capital of their host country. "If a Korean beat Chinese police officer, he would have been killed," one irate Internet user wrote
[China confrontation]
Pundit Likens Beijing Olympics to Nazi-Era Games
Jin Jung-kwon
A political commentator renowned for his sharp tongue has likened the Beijing Olympics to the 1936 Berlin Olympics under Nazi rule after Chinese mobs ran rampant here during the Seoul leg of the Olympic torch relay on Sunday. "China seems to have no intention of making the Olympics a festival that people around the world can enjoy together," Jin Jung-kwon, a lecturer in German language and literature at Chung-Ang University, said in a radio program on Monday. "Instead, it seems it’s trying to use it as an opportunity to display its power and bring the whole world under its red flag." Jin said it was "in keeping for people with such thinking to cause open violence in the streets."
[China confrontation]
He is one of the world's best bowlers but chose Indian riches over his Test career. The Kiwi explains why
smiling revolutionary who is face of cricket's future
The big interviewA
To hear audio extracts from this interview click here
Donald McRae The Guardian, Tuesday April 29 2008 Article historyAbout this articleClose This article appeared in the Guardian on Tuesday April 29 2008 on p6 of the Sport news & features section. It was last updated at 03:42 on April 29 2008.
Shane Bond, one of the world's best and most menacingly quick bowlers, laughs with surprising ease, seemingly undeterred by the fact that he has just been banned from international cricket. There are few lengthy intervals between his chuckling and chortling and the reasons for his good cheer should be enough to send a chill through the cricketing establishment. If some might have expected Bond to mourn the end of his Test career, as New Zealand begin their tour of England, they should be taken aback to hear his relish as he moves from the hushed citadels of cricket to the noisily extravagant Indian leagues.
Bond believes he has embraced the sport's future while transforming his
own life in choosing the Delhi Giants, one of the new Twenty20 teams formed under the banner of the rebel Indian Cricket League, ahead of New Zealand. Bond laughs lightly at the suggestion that, at the very least, he will double his income: "It's well more than that."
The 32-year-old Kiwi, now smiling knowingly, parries a cheeky question as to the exact size of his contract with Delhi. "I'm not allowed to tell you. But I'd have to play for years for New Zealand to earn the same amount of money - and play in every game. So the decision to go to India is a no-brainer. You're seeing the same thing with the IPL [the Indian Premier League] and the money on offer there. Players are now seriously considering missing Test series and retiring early to take up these opportunities. The cricket authorities are either going to have to allow players to retire or put alternatives into place."
Chinese nationalism gone wrong
[Editorial]
The day the Beijing Olympic torch was run through downtown Seoul, the city was in chaos the whole day long. That was because during its trip from Olympic Park to Seoul City Hall, there was a physical clash between thousands of Chinese welcoming the torch and protesters trying to block the procession to draw attention to the human rights situation in Tibet. It was nothing short of lawlessness, with Chinese protesters, who overwhelmingly outnumbered people protesting the torch, attacking them in the street. Our government has expressed strong regret to the Chinese.
If you examine the way the clash unfolded, you clearly see that the Chinese got excessively excited and overreacted. They threw rocks and bottles and injured people who had gone through normal procedures to register their public assembly. Hundreds of Chinese chased people who had been waving Tibetan flags into a hotel lobby, where they seemed to physically assault them in a group disturbance that will surely be remembered as a riot. Citizens who saw this openly taking place in the middle of the country’s capital surely felt insulted.
[Reassertion]
DPRK Foreign Minister Leaves for China
Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- Pak Ui Chun, minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, and his party left here Saturday to visit China.
They were sent off at the airport by Kim Yong Il, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, officials concerned and Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK.
China’s build up of FX reserves
Published: April 24 2008 09:48 | Last updated: April 24 2008 20:28
China’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $154bn during the first quarter, a record even by the country’s own impressive standards. Yet there are some clues that this may understate the build-up of foreign assets, in turn suggesting "hot money" flows into China have accelerated and that holding down the exchange rate is getting harder.
Six suggestions for China
[Column]
Jo Hyo-je, Professor of social science, SungKongHoe University
Let’s do a quiz. What country has only 7 percent of the world’s cultivated land and 8 percent of the world’s water, yet has succeeded in feeding 19.8 percent of the world’s population? What country has signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination? What country is one of the only twelve Asian member states to the UN Commission on Human Rights? What Asian country has signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights? What country has executed more people than all other countries combined? What country has 55 nationalities numbering more than 100 million people who coexist in relative peace, yet constantly faces criticism for its domestic colonialism? The answer to all these questions is "China." It is a marvelous yet contradictory country when it comes to human rights.
Debt Collection Done From India Appeals to U.S. Agencies
By HEATHER TIMMONS
Published: April 24, 2008
GURGAON, India — In a glass tower on the outskirts of New Delhi, dozens of young Indians are on the telephone, calling America’s out of work, forgetful and debt-stricken and asking for cash.
Zack Canepari for The New York Times
The Encore Capital Group, a debt collection company based in San Diego, has pep talks for workers at its call center in India.
“Are you sure that’s all you can afford?” one operator in a row of cubicles asks politely. “Well, how do you take care of your everyday expenses?” presses another.
Americans are used to receiving calls from India for insurance claims and credit card sales. But debt collection represents a growing business for outsourcing companies, especially as the American economy slows and its consumers struggle to pay for their purchases.
[Offshoring]
Chinese Ambassador Hosts Reception
Pyongyang, April 22 (KCNA) -- Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, hosted a reception at his embassy on Monday in the run-up to the torch relay for the 29th Olympics to be held in Pyongyang.
Present there on invitation were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, Pak Hak Son, chairman of the Physical Culture and Sports Guidance Commission who is chairman of the DPRK Olympic Committee, Pak Kwan O, chairman of the Pyongyang City People's Committee, and other officials concerned and diplomatic envoys of different countries here.
On hand were staff members of the Chinese embassy
China marks brisk food, oil exports to N. Korea in Jan.-March
BEIJING, April 23 KYODO
China, North Korea's major food and oil supplier, exported 85 percent more cereals and almost three times more crude oil in January-March than a year earlier, Chinese customs figures showed Wednesday.
The boost in exports comes after North Korea suffered the worst cereal harvest in recent years in 2007 and continues to face a chronic energy shortage.
N. Korean foreign minister to visit China April 26-29
Apr 22 05:40 AM US/Eastern
BEIJING, April 22 (AP) - (Kyodo)—North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun will pay a four- day visit to China from Saturday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Wooing the Islands: China and Taiwan High Stakes Bid for Pacific Island Support
Andre Vltchek
Mario Katosang, Palau’s minister of education, is no stranger to foreign travel. His ministry forged close cooperation with Japan. He is also regularly flown to Taipei and his ministry received a total amount of $1 million in 2006 and 2007 for infrastructure improvements to government-run schools. The government of Taiwan gives generous scholarships to the students of Palau and recently it began supplying the small Pacific Island nation’s schools with brand new PCs
Premiere of Opera "The Flower Girl" Given in Beijing
Beijing, April 15 (KCNA) -- The Phibada Opera Troupe of the DPRK gave its premiere of revolutionary opera "The Flower Girl" at the opera theatre of the State Grand Theatre in Beijing on Tuesday.
The performance was enjoyed by Liu Yunshan, member of the Political Bureau, member of the Secretariat and head of the Publicity Department of the C.C., the Communist Party of China, Wang Jiarui, head of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, Cai Wu, minister of Culture, Qiao Zonghui, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, officials concerned and citizens of Beijing.
Among the audience were DPRK Ambassador to China Choe Jin Su and his embassy officials and leading officials of the opera troupe.
The audiences were moved to tears to see such scenes as showing the cruel fate of the family of Kkotpun and meeting of her brother and younger sister and herself after missing one another even in dreams. And they breathed as one with the performers, expressing curses and hatred for the old society and the exploiting class.
India returns to the Caribbean
by Loro Horta, PhD candidate and research associate fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore http://www.ntu.edu.sg/publicportal
India’s economic expansion is being felt all over the world. Once remote and distant territories never before in the minds of most Indians, are fast becoming destinations for Indian investors. These include the islands of the Caribbean, which make a good case study of India’s emerging approach to trade and investment
[ODI] [China India comparison]
China's story: putting the PR into the PRC
James A Millward
Beijing is the target of world criticism over its Olympic preparations and its Tibet and Xinjiang policies. It needs a better public-relations response, says James A Millward.
17 - 04 - 2008
The tragicomic Olympic-torch tour presents the world with a serious problem. While the west has focused on the chaotic and even amusing aspects (French police on roller-blades, Chinese torch-guards in dark shades on a cloudy day), in China the iconic image is of the young female paralympic fencer Jin Jing struggling to hold the torch from her wheelchair while a grimacing free-Tibet protestor attempts to wrest it from her grasp. As with the Tibetan protests generally, people in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the world at large see the events of the torch tour in radically different ways.
A similar disconnect characterises recent Chinese announcements of foiled terrorist plots by Uighurs, the Turkic Muslims from China's Xinjiang region. Several official reports - regarding a raid on an alleged terror cell in Urumqi in January 2008, an attempt by a young Uighur woman and a man to bring down an airliner in March, and Uighur plans to attack tourist hotels and kidnap foreign journalists in April - have all met with scepticism by foreign media and analysts, infuriating Chinese authorities.
Despite unprecedented information interchange, despite more than two decades of Chinese openness to and deep economic integration with the world, and despite the promise of the Olympic moment, there is now a situation in which world public opinion, and that in China, are diametrically opposed. To oversimplify just a bit, the world public views the Chinese as ogres bent on crushing Tibetans, Uighurs, Darfurians, Christians and others. The Chinese public thinks the world is out to get them, and that the west just wants to keep China down.
[China confrontation] [Spin] [Country image] [Media] [Softpower]
Siew-Hu meeting puts dialogue back on agenda
Vice president-elect Vincent Siew, left, with China's President Hu Jintao at the April 11-13 Boao Forum for Asia on Hainan Island, in southern China. (CNA)
Publication Date:04/17/2008 Section:Front Page
By Tso Lon-di
Talks held between Taiwan's vice president-elect Vincent Siew and China's President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of an economic forum held in China April 12 have signaled a possible warming of economic relations across the Taiwan Strait.
The Siew-Hu meeting was arranged on the second day of the Boao Forum for Asia on the island of Hainan in southern China.
General Debate - Free Trade Agreement with China
Keith Locke MP, Green Party Foreign Affairs Spokesperson
9th April 2008
The Green Party is opposed to the New Zealand’s preferential trade agreement with China, signed in Beijing this week.
Carrefour Protests Highlight Resurgent Chinese Nationalism
Young Chinese people nowadays are extremely sensitive to any reports or statements critical of the Chinese government’s suppression of Tibetan demonstrators, which they tend to see as anti-Chinese and take to the streets to protest against. On Saturday morning, one such group of Chinese youngsters held a demonstration in front of a Carrefour store near the Beijing Exhibition Center with slogans like "Shut up, France" and calling for a boycott of the French superstore chain. Other Carrefour stores in major cities like Wuhan, Qingdao, Hefei, Kunming, and Xi'an were inundated with the national red flags borne carried by young Chinese activists. On Sunday, anti-France and anti-Carrefour rallies were held in Shenyang as well.
Protesters hold Chinese flags during a demonstration against the Carrefour supermarket and French goods in Wuhan, Hubei province on Saturday. /REUTERS
The reason is a rumor that Carrefour supports the exiled Tibetan leader financially. The fact that French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed dialogue between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama as a condition for his presence at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games this summer has hurt Chinese pride. Carrefour CEO Jose Luis Duran on Sunday denied the rumor, but that has not been enough to calm the Chinese anger.
[Consumer boycott] [Democracy]
N.Korean Opera Takes Chinese on a Nostalgic Journey
The curtain fell when the elder brother, a revolutionary and theatrical depiction of the late Kim Il-sung, North Korea's founding father, finally returned home, drew his blind sister to his breast and wept. The audience jumped to their feet, shouting, "Fei chang hao! (Bravo!)" and thunderous applause swept the filled-to-capacity 2,000-seat opera house at the National Grand Theater in Beijing.
[Hallyu] [Softpower] [Imperialism]
Protests of the West Spread in China
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: April 21, 2008
BEIJING — Nationwide demonstrations against a French supermarket chain spread on Sunday as thousands of people protested what they said was France’s sympathy for pro-Tibetan agitators. The protesters have also been singling out Western news outlets, especially CNN, for what they said was biased coverage of unrest in Tibet.
In a sign that the government was still allowing anti-foreign sentiment to spill over into rare street demonstrations, thousands of people rallied on Sunday in front of Carrefour markets in six cities, including two, Harbin and Jinan, where there had not been protests earlier. Demonstrators carried banners saying, "Oppose Tibet Independence" and "Condemn CNN," according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
The rallies are the largest public outpouring of nationalistic fury since 2005, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets to denounce Japanese textbooks that omitted any mention of Japan’s wartime atrocities in China.
[Democracy]
China trade - opportunity celebrated
The signing this week of the free trade agreement with China brings opportunities which should be utilised.
The agreement has the potential to be the CER of the 21st century.
It also opens up an interesting opportunity to complete an economic relationship agreement with Hong Kong. Hong Kong is outside the China FTA because of its status as a “special administrative region”.
Discussions with Hong Kong were suspended in 2002 principally around rules of origin questions. With the China FTA signed that hurdle has been removed. Recently Hong Kong scrapped duty on wine and for our wine makers there are huge opportunities to access China through the Hong Kong portal.
Lee Myung-bak and the Future of Sino-South Korean Relations
By Scott Snyder
April 10th, 2008
Scott Snyder, Senior Associate with The Asia Foundation and Pacific Forum CSIS, writes, “One key test of whether or not this is a new starting point will be whether China can meet its diplomatic objectives by influencing South Korean government policies not only in the context of the Sino-South Korean bilateral relationship, but also whether China can cast its shadow to the east sufficiently that South Korean administrations are required to take into account China’s preferences in formulating not only inter-Korean policy, but also South Korea’s management of relations with Japan and the United States."
[China SK relations]
Made-in-China Buses to Ply Korean Tourist Routes
Buses made in China will run in Korea for the first time. Big Motors, a Korean company producing exhaust emission reduction devices, said Monday that it will import the Starliner, a bus designed by Germany’s Neoplan and assembled in China, for tourist purposes.
Big Motors had imported a double-decker designed by the German company and made in China in June last year, but this is the first time it will import a made-in-China tourist bus. The Starliner is Neoplan’s popular model and assembled by China’s Zhejiang Jinhua. It costs W242 million (US$1=W975), some W40-50 million more than Hyundai Motor’s luxury tourist bus Universe. A Hyundai Motor spokesman said that his company will watch the situation for the time being.
[China competition]
Tibet and Palestine
By URI AVNERY
Apri1 7, 2008
"Hey! Take your hands off me! Not you! You!!!"--the voice of a young woman in the darkened cinema, an old joke.
"Hey! Take your hands off Tibet!" the international chorus is crying out, "But not from Chechnya! Not from the Basque homeland! And certainly not from Palestine!" And that is not a joke.
LIKE EVERYBODY else, I support the right of the Tibetan people to independence, or at least autonomy. Like everybody else, I condemn the actions of the Chinese government there. But unlike everybody else, I am not ready to join in the demonstrations.
Why? Because I have an uneasy feeling that somebody is washing my brain, that what is going on is an exercise in hypocrisy.
[Double standards] [China confrontation]
State’s Christensen Remarks on Shaping China’s Global Market
Deputy assistant testifies at U.S.-China Economic, Security Review Commission
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Shaping China’s Global Choices Through Diplomacy
Statement by Thomas J. Christensen
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Before the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission
March 18, 2008
The topic of this hearing is very timely. There is little doubt that China’s regional and global influence is rising rapidly. My colleague David Sedney will discuss the military policies underpinning China’s growing influence. I would like to speak about how United States policy has responded to the growing influence that has flowed from China’s expanding diplomatic and economic engagement in the East Asia region and around the world.
Influencing China’s International Strategy
I should say at the outset that the United States is not attempting to contain or counter China’s growing influence, but rather to shape the choices that Chinese leaders make about how to use their growing power.
[China confrontation]
The Candidates and India
Sammy Loren | April 1, 2008
For the past few months it seems that New Delhi has been shrouded in a thick, meandering fog. For the auto rickshaw drivers and fruit vendors, the intelligentsia and the elite who occupy the steamy Gangetic Plains, the fog has become, as all things in India must, symbolic of an uncertain future. A Pakistan on the verge of doom? An Olympic China who this summer will put India in the shadows? An increasingly bellicose Russia? Wrong on all counts.
For all the calamities bordering the world’s most populous democracy, it is the world’s most powerful democracy, thousands of miles and oceans apart, that so preoccupies Indians. Major Indian papers have taken to splashing their front pages not with the usual lubricious photos of Bollywood vixens and bad boy cricketers, but with two middle-aged, less photogenic Americans: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In a country where newsprint is almost exclusively reserved for the sexy and sporty, it begs the question: are Indians Democrats?
To put it simply, yes. Indians of all stripes, from the Communist parties to the rightwing BJP party, see the past seven years of America’s reckless foreign and economic policies to have been perpetrated at their expense
[India US]
Laos Fears China's Footprint
By DENIS D. GRAY
VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — A high-rise Chinatown that is to go up by Laos' laid-back capital has ignited fears that this nation's giant northern neighbor is moving to engulf this nation.
So alarmed are Laotians that the communist government, which rarely explains its actions to the population, is being forced to do just that, with what passes for an unprecedented public relations campaign.
It comes at a time when China is rapidly becoming the No. 1 foreign economic and political power in Laos. As migrants, money and influence roll across the frontier, northern areas of the country are beginning to look like a Chinese province.
[China confrontation]
India's Strategic Thrust in S. E. Asia---Before & After 9/11
Paper no. 2643
26-Mar.-2008
By B. Raman
(A keynote speech delivered by the writer on March 26, 2008, at an international seminar on INDIA-SOUTHEAST ASIA: STRATEGIC CONVERGENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY organised from March 26 to 28, 2008, by the CENTRE FOR SAARC STUDIES of the Andhra University, Visakhapattnam (Vizag))
In recent years, the expression 'strategic' to characterise relations between nations has been used somewhat widely and somewhat loosely. The characterisation ' strategic relationship' has certain defining connotations. Firstly, there is a connotation in time----strategic as against tactical, long-term as against short-term and enduring as against ephemeral. Secondly, it is a relationship based on perceptions of common interests and not on perceptions of mutual utility. Thirdly, it is a multi-dimensional relationship with many points of focus----political, economic, mutual security, ideological affinity etc. Fourthly, a strategic relationship is a quid pro quo relationship and not one based on feelings of charity or benevolence.
India lays out a red carpet for Myanmar
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - India has come to realize that the main beneficiary of strained India-Myanmar relations will be China, whether for access to all-important hydrocarbon energy sources, transport corridors or strategic control of the maritime waters of the Indian Ocean.
India has thus accorded prime importance this week to the visit of the second-most important person of Myanmar's ruling military junta, General Maung Aye. Apart from China and a few East Asian nations, it is unlikely that any other country would extend the kind of red carpet welcome laid out for Aye by New Delhi.
[Double standards]
Leadership Down Under
By Deepti Choubey
From the Carnegie Institute for International Peace
Saturday, April 5, 2008; 12:00 AM
Australia is under pressure, from both abroad and at home, to make an exception to global nuclear trading rules for India. Since taking office last November, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has taken a principled stand against the further spread and use of nuclear weapons and materials. In particular, he promised that Australia -- one of the world's largest uranium exporters -- would trade only with countries that play by international nuclear rules
[NPT]
'India may become No. 2 world economy'
Wednesday, 02 April , 2008, 19:06
Washington: The 21st century "will be the century of Asia" with China at the top and either the United States or India in second place, according to a top US intelligence official.
"This will be the century of Asia," said Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell in a talk on future global trends at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.
"Think about that. If you're Chinese and you think of yourself as the Middle Kingdom, and you were exploited for 100 years, what is the future?" he asked.
"Now, we would rail against Communism, control, and so on, but think about it: 1.3 billion people growing at a phenomenal rate; the three largest economies in the world - four largest economies in the world over the next 30 years will grow into this," McConnell said.
"Number one will be China, number two will be the United States or India - we don't know; one or the other - number four will be Japan," he said. "So if you just think in economic terms, you see how it starts to become the century of Asia."
From Florence to Shanghai, Ferragamo eyes a makeover
Traditional Italian fashion house is in a hurry to reinvent itself in China
Jess Cartner-Morley in Shanghai
Saturday March 29, 2008
The Guardian
For 70 years, the headquarters of the Salvatore Ferragamo fashion house has been the medieval Palazzo Spini Feroni, in Florence. The label's pride in its heritage is so strong that Ferrucio Ferragamo, son of the founder, yesterday described as "written in stone" his commitment that all Ferragamo products will be made in Italy forever.
But yesterday the company celebrated its 80th anniversary in a reproduction of the palazzo built on the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. It was an event which speaks volumes about the luxury industry's obsession with the Chinese market.
Winds of change transform political scene
Publication Date:03/28/2008 Section:Front Page
By Amber Wu
Taiwan politics were remade in dramatic fashion March 22 after Kuomintang candidate Ma Ying-jeou won by a landslide in the ROC's 12th presidential election, defeating his Democratic Progressive party rival Frank Hsieh by more than 2 million votes. According to the Central Election Commission, Ma and his running mate Vincent Siew took 58.45 percent, or 7,658,724 votes, while Hsieh and Su Tseng-chang received 41.55 percent, or 5,445,239. A total of 76.33 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots.
POSCO Cancels Ground-Breaking for India Plant
POSCO has indefinitely postponed the ground-breaking ceremony for a US$12 billion steel mill in India, which was scheduled for April 1, when POSCO marks its 40th anniversary. It was to be the largest-ever foreign direct investment in Indian history, but now the prospects of POSCO’s plans to compete with super steelmakers as ArcelorMittal, Nippon Steel and Baosteel are unclear.
Tata pledges to keep UK plants open
By Jonathan Guthrie in Birmingham, Joseph Leahy in Mumbai and John Reed in London
Published: March 26 2008 22:10 | Last updated: March 26 2008 22:10
Tata Motors has promised to keep Jaguar and Land Rover’s three UK plants and two product engineering sites open until at least 2011 as part of its winning bid to buy the two carmakers, it emerged on Wednesday
Straitened times: Taiwan looks to China
By Kathrin Hille
Published: March 25 2008 18:54 | Last updated: March 25 2008 18:54
After Ma Ying-jeou won Taiwan’s presidential election on Saturday, jubilant supporters of his Kuomintang partied at the KMT headquarters all night. Investors were still celebrating when the market reopened on Monday, with stocks rising 4 per cent before easing back slightly on Tuesday.
Behind the exuberance stands the belief that the KMT’s return to power could prove a historic moment – that it will put Taiwan on a track to closer economic integration with China, give the island its rightful share of the benefits of China’s growth and defuse one of Asia’s most dangerous latent conflicts. “The KMT and the Chinese leadership have a common objective: economic development on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and the easing of tension. They will work towards the goal of economic integration and the revitalisation of Taiwan’s economy,” says Peter Sutton, head of research at the Taipei office of CLSA, a regional brokerage.
Mr Ma (pictured above) says he wants to put disagreements over Taiwan’s status aside and start talks with Beijing – first on economic issues and eventually on a peace accord. While China has long claimed sovereignty over the island and threatens to attack it should Taiwan formalise its de facto independence, Chinese leaders have responded by saying they are ready to communicate with any Taiwanese politician who does not actively push for independence.
Indian firm buys Jaguar and Land Rover· Silence on speculation that Tata has paid $2.65bn
· Ford likely to provide engines for both marques
Mark Milner, industrial editor The Guardian, Wednesday March 26 2008 Article historyAbout this articleClose This article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday March 26 2008 on p21 of the Financial section. It was last updated at 01:49 on March 26 2008.
Photograph: Andrew Parsons/PA
Thousands of workers at Jaguar and Land Rover plants are expected to be told today that the marques have been sold to the Indian conglomerate Tata.
It is understood that a deal between Tata and Ford over the sale of two of the best known names in British car making was concluded last night after months of painstaking negotiations.
Ford refused to confirm a deal had been signed last night, saying any significant development had to be communicated to employees first. However, formal confirmation that the two sides have reached agreement is expected via simultaneous announcements in India, Britain and the US at around noon GMT today.
[ODI]
A Chevy With an Engine From China
By IAN AUSTEN
Published: March 26, 2008
OSHAWA, Ontario — General Motors car engines were once the stuff of American legend. The Beach Boys sang, “nothing can touch my 409,” about a powerful Chevy V-8. Oldsmobile owners in 1981 were so angered that their cars had been fitted with Chevrolet engines instead of Oldsmobile “Rockets,” the subject of another hit song, that they successfully sued G.M. over the swap.
The 3.4 liter engine is made by Shanghai General Motors, a venture of G.M. and Shanghai Automotive Industry.
The company has since eliminated brand distinctions between engines, saddling them with names unlikely to inspire songwriters, like Ecotec, Vortec and Northstar. But some owners of the Chevrolet Equinox, a “compact” sport utility vehicle built in North America, might be surprised to learn the origin of the engine under their hoods — it’s made in China.
Last year, China exported more than $12 billion in auto parts, up from less than $2 billion in 2002 — the majority to North America.
[Auto] [IJV] [FDI]
Minister to open NZT&E Mumbai office
Tuesday, 25 March 2008, 4:50 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Government
26 March 2008 Media Statement
Forestry Minister Jim Anderton today opened a new NZ Trade and Enterprise office in the world's most populous city, Mumbai.
Jim Anderton said the new office for NZTE in Mumbai reflects the city's importance as a hub for Western India. "It acknowledges increased focus on opportunities in the region, and growing interest in this vast market from New Zealand companies."
The new India Beachhead Board will be supported from Mumbai. The new office will also be the primary support for Investment New Zealand programmes in India.
India plans wargames with China
(AFP)
24 March 2008
NEW DELHI - India plans to go ahead with fresh military manoeuvres with China despite global condemnation of Beijing for a crackdown this month on protestors in Tibet, officials said on Tuesday.
The two neighbours held their first-ever joint wargames in China’s Yunnan province last December, with 200 Indian and Chinese troops engaged in anti-terrorism drills.
[China India cooperation]
China braced for wave of urban migrants
By Geoff Dyer in Shanghai
Published: March 23 2008 16:08 | Last updated: March 23 2008 16:08
More than 40 per cent of the population of Chinese cities will be made up of migrants within two decades, putting huge pressure on the ability of local governments to provide services to citizens, according to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute.
On top of the existing 103m urban migrants, Chinese cities will face an influx of another 243m migrants by 2025, taking the urban population up to nearly 1bn people. In the medium and large cities, about half the population will be migrants, which is almost three times the current level.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Analysis: China’s state-owned champions - Mar-16US business wants more immigrant workers - Mar-20Richard McGregor: China’s grandfather lacks balance - Mar-12Video: China’s peasant rebellion - Mar-24The forecasts, contained in a study on urbanisation in China, underline the enormous challenge facing Beijing if it is to meet pledges to include the vast army of migrant workers in urban social welfare programmes, to which they are mostly denied access at the moment.
“The fact that 40 to 50 per cent of cities could be made up by migrant workers is a real wake-up call,” said Jonathan Woetzel, a director of McKinsey’s Shanghai office and one of the authors of the report.
[Migration]
New Taiwan Leader Throwing Down Gauntlet to Korea
The long-established rivalry between Korea and Taiwan is to heat up now both countries are under new pragmatic leaders. Taiwanese president-elect Ma Ying-jeou vowed to overtake South Korea once again in his election campaign. Ma has set forth a "633" pledge -- achieving 6 percent annual growth, increasing per capita income to US$30,000 by 2016, and bringing the unemployment rate to under 3 percent after 2012. It clearly borrows from President Lee Myung-bak's "747" pledge -- 7 percent growth, per capita income of $40,000 in a decade, and making South Korea the world's seventh-largest economy.
Ma’s economic program, however, naturally focuses chiefly on China. He aims to revitalize the Taiwanese economy through close exchanges with China. During President Chen Shui-bian's rule, Taiwan suffered slow annual growth of 3.8 percent on average. Since 2005, Taiwan has been overtaken by South Korea in terms of per capita national income. The Taiwanese blamed themselves for failing to make the most of China, the engine of global economy, resulting in a change of government.
Just like America, China is building a multi-ethnic empire in the west
Tibet and Xinjiang have the misfortune of having resources the Asian giant wants, and being on the path to resources it needs
Parag Khanna
The Guardian, Tuesday March 25 2008 Article historyAbout this articleClose This article appeared in the Guardian on Tuesday March 25 2008 on p29 of the Comment & debate section. It was last updated at 00:02 on March 25 2008. It is difficult to find a westerner who does not intuitively support the idea of a free Tibet. But would Americans ever let go of Texas or California? For China, the Anglo-Russian great game for control of central Asia was neither inconclusive nor fruitless, something that cannot be said for Russia or Britain. Indeed, China was the big winner.
Boundary agreements in 1895 and 1907 gave Russia the Pamir mountains and established the Wakhan Corridor - the slender eastern tongue of Afghanistan that borders China - as a buffer to Britain. But rather than cede East Turkestan (Uighurstan) to the Russians, the British financed China's recapture of the territory, which it organised into Xinjiang (which means "New Dominions"). While West Turkestan was splintered into the hermetic Soviet Stans, China reasserted its traditional dominance over Xinjiang and Tibet, today its largest - and least stable - provinces. (Beijing has now accused the Dalai Lama of colluding with Muslim Uighur separatists in Xinjiang.) But without them, the country would be like America without all territory west of the Rockies: denied its continental majesty and status.
SKT's Plans Shaken By Chinese Restructuring
The Chinese government is planning a massive restructuring of China's telecommunications companies, including selling the CDMA network of China Unicom, the country's second-largest mobile service provider. That throws the China business prospects of SK Telecom, which has invested US$1 billion in China Unicom, into limbo.
According to the telecom industry on Sunday, the Chinese government, ahead of the expected restructuring, recently decided to merge fixed and mobile service providers. Accordingly, China Telecom, the country's largest fixed service provider, will take over China Unicom's CDMA network.
China Unicom's European-style GSM network will be merged with China Netcom, the country's second-largest fixed service provider. China Mobile, the top wireless operator, will take over China Railcom, a small fixed service provider.
The restructuring is a strategy to prepare for third- and fourth-generation mobile service projects, by making the country's telecoms providers bigger in line with the global trend of merging fixed and mobile service providers.
Taiwan's Ma Sets Plan To Recast Ties to China
Vision Includes Economic, Security Gains, Then Peace Accord
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, March 24, 2008; Page A08
TAIPEI, March 23 -- Taiwan's president-elect, Ma Ying-jeou, outlined ambitious plans Sunday to revolutionize economic and security relations with China, aiming ultimately for a peace accord ending 59 years of hostility across the Taiwan Strait.
Ebullient after a decisive victory in Saturday's election, Ma predicted he could reach agreement with Beijing on a wide range of delicate issues because, unlike President Chen Shui-bian, he is willing to put aside the question of whether this self-ruled
Western stance infuriates young Chinese fed on government propaganda
Tania Branigan in Beijing The Observer, Sunday March 23 2008 Article historyAbout this articleClose This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday March 23 2008 on p43 of the World news section. It was last updated at 00:00 on March 23 2008. Like many young people in the West, Wang Shaoqing longs to travel through Tibet one day, to experience its stunning scenery and witness the culture. Like them, too, he is deeply concerned by the troubles of the past fortnight and what he sees as an inadequate international response.
'We find it hard to understand why the West has always used the Tibetan issue to oppress China ... Tibet is a historically indispensable part of the Chinese nation,' complained Wang, 23, a Beijing college student, blaming the Dalai Lama and his followers for inciting riots.
His remarks underscore the cultural gulf between Chinese and Western observers of the unrest.
[Media]
Taiwan President-Elect Urges Closer Ties to Mainland
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: March 24, 2008
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Hours after winning Taiwan’s presidential elections by a decisive margin, Ma Ying-jeou said Sunday that he would pursue closer economic relations with mainland China, confidence-building measures to reduce the chance of an accidental war and eventually a peace agreement with Beijing.
Mr. Ma also said at a news conference that he hoped to improve relations with the United States. The Bush administration has been deeply irritated by Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan’s president for the past eight years, for repeatedly antagonizing the mainland by inching toward political independence, even while counting on American support to counter any Chinese aggression.
Mr. Ma again denounced the Chinese crackdown in Tibet, and said that if the Dalai Lama wanted to come to Taiwan, he would be welcome, even describing him as a "lovable Tibetan leader." Mr. Ma said he supported the Dalai Lama’s calls for autonomy for Tibet within China.
. He described Taiwan by its legal name, the Republic of China, and said it was a "sovereign nation" with a completely different status from Tibet.
China Offers Its Version of Protests
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 23, 2008
Filed at 2:48 a.m. ET
CHENGDU, China (AP) -- With restive Tibetan areas swarming with troops and closed to scrutiny from the outside world, China's government has turned up efforts to put its own version of the unrest before the international public.
Information barely trickled out of the Tibetan capital Lhasa and other far-flung Tibetan communities, where foreign media were banned and thousands of troops dispatched to quell the most widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule in nearly five decades.
The Chinese government was attempting to fill the information vacuum with its own message, saying Sunday through official media that the restive areas were under control.
The government has also disseminated footage of Tibetan protesters attacking Chinese and accusations of biased reporting by Western media via TV, the Internet, e-mail and YouTube, which is blocked in China. The media barrage underscored that the government campaign is moving into a new phase of damage control ahead of the much-anticipated Beijing Olympics in August.
On Sunday, Communist Party newspapers accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the riots in Tibet to try to mar the Olympics and overthrow the area's communist leaders. It was China's latest attempt to demonize the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader in the eyes of the Chinese public, which is strongly supportive of the Olympics.
''The Bejing Olympics are eagerly awaited by the people of the whole world, but the Dalai clique is scheming to take the Beijing Oympics hostage to force the Chinese government to make concessions to Tibet indepedence,'' the People's Daily said.
Taiwan Voters Elect New President
Nationalist Ma Ying-jeou's Win Likely to Ease Tensions With China, Pleasing U.S.
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 23, 2008; Page A12
TAIPEI, Taiwan, March 22 -- Ma Ying-jeou, a smooth Harvard law graduate who advocates better relations with China, was elected president of Taiwan by an overwhelming margin Saturday, opening the prospect of lowered tensions in the volatile Taiwan Strait
[Media] [Fragmenation]
Chinese leader to make state visit to Seoul
China has accepted an invitation for Chinese President Hu Jintao to make a state visit to South Korea, Seoul's top diplomat said Saturday.
"China has agreed in principle on the visit to South Korea by Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party and paramount leader of the People's Republic of China," Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told South Korean correspondents in Beijing.
But the timing of the visit, he added, had yet to be determined.
Yu made the announcement at the end of this three-day trip to Beijing, during which he held separate meetings with Wen Jiabao, China's premier, Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party's international liaison department, and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. It was Yu's first overseas trip since taking office early this month.
Taiwan Wants to Focus on Building Its Own High-Tech Brands
By CINDY SUI
Published: March 22, 2008
HSINCHU, Taiwan — Mike Liang earns the equivalent of $37,500 a year, owns a four-bedroom apartment and can afford to send his two daughters to English tutorial schools.
Like other employees at the Hsinchu Science Park, Mr. Liang, a marketing manager for a semiconductor company, is the envy of many on this island, where average annual salaries stagnate at around $17,000 and high property prices keep many married couples living with their parents.
But what is on Mr. Liang’s mind and that of many others in Taiwan’s high-technology industry is how it can maintain success amid growing competition from neighbors, including China and South Korea, and global price declines in products like laptop computers. The slower growth rate in sales of some high-tech goods and the economic downturn in the United States are also worries.
Many industry workers and analysts say the greatest economic challenge for Taiwan and its 23 million people is overcoming its reliance on manufacturing for other brands and focusing on innovation and building its own brands.
[IM] [Brand]
Bush Silent, but Others Speak Out on Tibet Crackdown
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: March 22, 2008
WASHINGTON — China’s violent crackdown on protesters in Tibet is having powerful political reverberations in Washington, where the White House is weighing how far to go in condemning the Chinese government, even as it defends President Bush’s decision to attend the Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Mr. Bush has long said the United States and China have "a complex relationship," and that complexity was on full display this week. While his administration has called for an end to the violence, and his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, phoned her Chinese counterpart to urge restraint, Mr. Bush himself has remained silent.
Taiwanese Face Tough Decision in Vote
By PETER ENAV
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 22, 2008; 1:07 AM
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwanese voters were deciding Saturday whether to stick with a party whose pro-independence bent has strained ties with China or switch to one pushing for a reduction of tensions and more economic engagement with the communist country.
Just two weeks ago, opposition candidate Ma Ying-jeou seemed ready to cruise to victory in the island's fourth direct presidential election, promising to work toward friendlier relations and even a common market with China.
China's new embassy to be Korea's largest
March 21, 2008
China will flex its growing diplomatic muscle in grand fashion with a planned 24-story tower, the largest embassy in the country, to be built in Myeong-dong, downtown Seoul, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced yesterday.
The building will be constructed on a plot of land that was home to China¡¯s embassy before it moved to Jongno in May, 2002. The former Chinese embassy building on the site will be demolished and the new building is slated to be completed by 2012, according to plans submitted by the embassy to the city government.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Slams Dishonest Forces' Violence in Tibet
Pyongyang, March 20 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA Thursday as regards cases of violence in Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region of China:
There occurred assault, robbery, arson and murder in the above-said city recently.
This has touched off indignation and condemnation among all Chinese people as it was committed by Tibet separatists in an organized manner at the prodding of dishonest elements.
Tibet is part of an inalienable territory of China.
The DPRK government strongly denounces the unsavory elements for their moves to seek "independence of Tibet" and scuttle the upcoming Beijing Olympics and supports the Chinese government in its efforts to ensure social stability and the rule of law in Tibet and defend the fundamental interests of the Tibetan people.
For Some Young Tibetan Exiles, Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle Way’ Is a Road to Failure
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: March 21, 2008
DHARAMSALA, India — "Long live the Dalai Lama!" is the most common cry on the streets here.
A new generation of exiles is growing edgy in Dharamsala.
Even so, the 72-year-old monk’s refusal to call for independence from China more forcefully as it has cracked down on the protests in Tibet has sharpened disagreement with younger and more aggressive Tibetan exiles.
Tenzin Wangdue, who has spent the last 11 days shouting slogans, including some that the Dalai Lama would shun, is typical of the new generation. While not rejecting the Dalai Lama’s authority, he believes Tibetans have to push harder if they are going to get anywhere. "They’re not going to give total independence," he said of China. "But I think there’s hope they’re going to accept genuine autonomy if we say we want total autonomy."
Dell to buy $52 bln components from China
By Kirby Chien
Reuters
Thursday, March 20, 2008; 10:10 AM
BEIJING (Reuters) - Dell Inc (DELL.O) plans to buy $23 billion of components from China this year and $29 billion in 2009, helping it reduce costs while the company's main market, the United States, is facing recession.
The commoditization of computer hardware means competition is more a function of price and efficiency than quality and branding, making China a favorite place to source a broad range of goods, including electronic components.
"China is critical to Dell's global supply chain," founder and Chief Executive Michael Dell told reporters on Thursday.
[ICT]
Fear of Contaminated Chinese Foods Spreading
By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
There are more contaminated China-made food products on the market that haven't made news headlines like the latest shrimp snack, said the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA), the country's most representative consumer protection group, Wednesday.
``We've already had 10 reports this year regarding safety concerns over imported Chinese food products,'' said a KCA researcher, who asked for anonymity. Coffee, sesame oil and health supplements were some items that were recently reported, he said.
China Won’t Alter Olympic Torch Path
By JULIET MACUR and DAVID LAGUE
Published: March 20, 2008
BEIJING — Despite violent protests in Tibet, China remains steadfast in its plan to take the Olympic torch to Tibet and to Mount Everest, officials in the Beijing Olympics organizing committee said Wednesday.
The torch will be lighted in Athens on Monday and, after a global tour of 135 cities, is to reach the top of Mount Everest sometime in May, when the weather makes a safe ascent possible. Afterward, that Olympic flame, one of two that will be in China at that time, will be taken through Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, the site of deadly riots last week and a continuing Chinese crackdown.
India-US nuclear deal, RIP?
By Praful Bidwai
3/18/2008
Just days after the United Progressive Alliance launched what looked like a determined last-ditch effort to ram through the United States-India nuclear deal, it seems ready to go into cold storage, if not into oblivion. It's almost certain to miss the US political timetable, which requires that the deal be sent to the Senate by May for ratification before the July recess. After that, it would be near-impossible to pass the deal before the November presidential election.
This is a major victory for India's left parties and the peace movement, which have opposed the deal right since July 2005. It's a morale-booster for all those who questioned the wisdom of a special collaborative arrangement with the US. And it's a slap in the face of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This is likely to alter power equations in the Congress and UPA.
[Nuclear deal]
Chinese TV series popular in DPRK
+ - 19:21, March 18, 2008
A Chinese TV series with the theme of anti-Japanese guerrilla war during the Second World War is being broadcast on Pyongyang's television screens, drawing great attention from viewers.
"Di Hou Wu Gong Dui (guerrillas in the enemy's rear guard), produced by CCTV in 2005, is currently being broadcast on prime-time TV by the Korean Central Television Program (KCTP) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Xinhua correspondents in Pyongyang saw many people gathering before televisions in public places, watching the series attentively. "It's very interesting. I'm very eager to know how the story goes on," a woman said. [Softpower] [Japanese colonialism]
U.S. Delisting of China Upsets Rights Activists
By Jill Drew
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 13, 2008; Page A13
BEIJING, March 12 -- Human rights activists on Wednesday decried the U.S. State Department's decision to drop China from its list of the world's worst human rights violators, saying that China's crackdown on dissent is getting worse as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in August.
"We and others have documented a sharp uptick in human rights violations directly related to preparations for the Olympics," said Phelim Kine, Asia researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch. The decision comes at the worst possible time for activists seeking to pressure Beijing to relax restrictions on free speech, release political prisoners and improve human rights protections, Kine added.
[Human rights] [Manipulation]
Stand with Tibet - Support the Dalai Lama
After decades of repression, Tibetans are crying out to the world for change. China's leaders are right now making a crucial choice between escalating brutality or dialogue that could determine the future of Tibet, and China
Pettion by Avaaz.org (In just one year, we’ve grown to over 2 million members, and have begun to make a real impact on global politics. The Economist writes that Avaaz is poised to deliver “a deafening wake up call” to world leaders, the Indian Express welcomes “the biggest web campaigner across the world” and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore says “Avaaz is inspiring, and has already begun to make a difference.” )
[Fragmentation]
Year of Olympics: Year of the Trojan Rats
By B. Raman
February 7, 2008, was the beginning of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese call the current year "the Year of the Rat".
4. There were also ominous (for the Chinese, if they had seen them) references to the Trojan Rats, which would keep the Chinese foxed and busy throughout the year of the Olympics. Many were planning to let loose Trojan Rats all over China as the Beijing Olympics approached and during the Olympics.
5. The highly intelligent, Internet-savvy Tibetan youth, the bin Laden-admiring Uighurs, the Falun Gong, the disgruntled youth of China, the pro-democracy activists of Hong Kong, the many anti-China groups in the US----- they were all planning for their own Year of the Trojan Rat.
[Cyberwar] [China confrontation]
Beijing’s political tightrope-walk
Kerry Brown
China's leadership is forced to navigate a difficult domestic policy course in the path to the Olympics, says Kerry Brown.
13 - 03 - 2008
China's premier Wen Jiabao has said that he is the world's most worried man. Across his desk pass reports on the many issues that could endanger the country's stability and halt its steady growth: environmental damage, energy-supply problems, social unrest among them. At night, in the peaceful seclusion of the central Zhongnanhai compound next to Beijing's "forbidden city", the worries must if anything intensify. Wen's years as a consummate political insider and survivor may have brought him to a commanding political position - but nothing can have prepared him (or indeed anyone) for the task of steering the mighty entity that the People's Republic of China has become on a stable and sustainable course (see "China goes global", 2 August 2008
China Attacks US Human Rights Record
By TINI TRAN – Mar 13, 2008
BEIJING (AP) — China responded Thursday to a U.S. report critical of its human rights record by releasing its own review attacking America's rights record as "tattered and shocking."
The State Council, or Cabinet, released the report two days after the U.S. State Department took China to task for widespread human rights violations.
China's report criticized violent crime in the U.S., its large prison population and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It is high time for the U.S. government to face its own human rights problems with courage...and give up the unwise practices of applying double standards on human rights issues and using it to suppress other countries," the report said.
[Human rights] [Double standards] [Reassertion]
The Rise of China and the Future of the West
Can the Liberal System Survive?
G. John Ikenberry
From Foreign Affairs, January/February 2008
Summary: China's rise will inevitably bring the United States' unipolar moment to an end. But that does not necessarily mean a violent power struggle or the overthrow of the Western system. The U.S.-led international order can remain dominant even while integrating a more powerful China -- but only if Washington sets about strengthening that liberal order now.
G. JOHN IKENBERRY is Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and the author of After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order After Major Wars.
The rise of China will undoubtedly be one of the great dramas of the twenty-first century. China's extraordinary economic growth and active diplomacy are already transforming East Asia, and future decades will see even greater increases in Chinese power and influence. But exactly how this drama will play out is an open question. Will China overthrow the existing order or become a part of it? And what, if anything, can the United States do to maintain its position as China rises?
[China confrontation] [Decline] [Imperialism]
A WiMax Breakthrough in India
Tata Communications unveils an ambitious plan to become global leader in wireless broadband by launching the world's largest commercial network
by Manjeet Kripalani
A new nationwide wireless broadband network will soon make online access faster for millions of Indians like Sujatha, a resident in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad who reguarly trades stocks on her laptop. NOAH SEELAM/AFP/Getty Images
View Slide Show
India is about to become the frontier for high-speed, mobile Internet connections. On Mar. 4, India's Tata Communications , an emerging broadband player, announced the countrywide rollout of a commercial WiMax network, the largest anywhere in the world of the high-speed, wireless broadband technology.
[ICT]
Hope and Fear
A Summary of Key Findings of C-100’s Survey on
American and Chinese Attitudes Toward Each Other
China aids hunt for hero’s body
March 12, 2008
Ahn Joong-geun
The Korean government is expected to send a team of experts to Lushun, China, to conduct a detailed search for the remains of Ahn Joong-geun, one of the best-known Korean independence activists in the struggle against the Japanese occupation.
The Chinese government has temporarily halted a construction project underway in the area where Ahn is believed to have been buried after being executed by the Japanese.
The Foreign Ministry said the Chinese government has promised ¡°full cooperation¡± in the project to excavate Ahn¡¯s remains from the site where the Lushun Prison, controlled by Japan, was located in the early 20th century. Ahn was put to death in 1910 after killing Hirobumi Ito, a Japanese military governor who played a crucial role in colonizing Korea.
¡°We will send a team to the site as soon as possible to begin the excavation project,¡± said Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong. He also said the government is mulling over coordinating the project with North Korea, which has also made great efforts to find Ahn¡¯s body.
Ahn, born in 1879 in Haeju, now in North Korea, is considered a national hero in both Koreas for his assassination of Ito. The Japanese media at the time called him a ¡°terrorist.¡±
Experts from both North and South Korea have conducted several searches of the site where Lushun Prison was located, so far with no success.
But the area recently became a construction site for a new apartment complex and the Korean government asked Chinese authorities to leave it intact until Korean experts can begin another round of digging.
[Terrorism] [Japanese colonialism] [Double standards]
Press Conference at Chinese Embassy
Pyongyang, March 11 (KCNA) -- A press conference was held at the Chinese embassy here Tuesday in connection with a ceremony to be held here for the torch relay race for the 29th Olympic Games.
China to Help Recover Remains of An Jung-geun
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
China has expressed its willingness to cooperate on South Korea's plan to recover the remains of An Jung-geun, a renowned independence fighter who assassinated Japan's first Resident General Ito Hirobumi in 1909 in an attempt to frustrate Japan's annexation of Korea, the government said Tuesday.
[Japanese colonialism] [Terrorism] [Double standards]
India's Survivors of Partition Begin to Break Long Silence
Projects Document Anguish of 1947 Split
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 12, 2008; Page A01
NEW DELHI -- Every year in March, Bir Bahadur Singh goes to the local Sikh shrine and narrates the grim events of the long night six decades ago when 26 women in his family offered their necks to the sword for the sake of honor.
At the time, sectarian riots were raging over the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, and the men of Singh's family decided it was better to kill the women than have them fall into the hands of Muslim mobs.
PRC Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
March 11, 2008 By CHINA HAND
China’s response to the new UN Security Council sanctions on Iran provide a useful perspective on Chinese policy and its movement toward a new, post-Bush and post-terror alternative doctrine for managing international crises.
Months of concerted flailing by the United States have only served to produce another inconclusive Iran sanction.
It’s a reflection of what might be called the post-Cold War, post-veto United Nations environment. The United States might be willing to go on the record with a veto when, particularly in matters of Israel, the sense of the UN is against it. But it looks as though China has a stronger interest in upholding the image of the UN as a valid arena for crisis resolution and compromise.
Therefore, when an undesirable resolution is coming down the pipe, China concentrates on diluting and muddling it, make sure there are no onerous interpretative or enforcement elements, voting for it, then hurrying to the spin room to explain what its vote really meant.
Case in point: Resolution 1803, the third round of sanctions on Iran.
[UNUS]
The China Syndrome
Michael T. Klare | March 5, 2008
Editor: John Feffer
Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org
On February 4, President Bush announced a baseline military budget of $515.4 billion for the next fiscal year, not including funds for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the largest one-year Pentagon request in real, uninflated dollars since World War II. This Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 figure represents a 7.5% increase over the 2008 appropriation of $479.5 billion and is expected to be the first of many rising requests supposedly needed to replace equipment lost and damaged in Iraq and to gear up for the security threats to come. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen explained last October, “we’re just going to have to devote more resources to national security in the world we’re living in right now.”
At first glance, all these additional funds will be used to sustain the Global War on Terror (GWOT, in Pentagon shorthand) and replace equipment destroyed or rendered inoperable in the wars now under way. “The Fiscal Year 2009 Defense budget request sustains the President’s commitment to growing U.S. ground forces that are needed to prevail in the current conflicts in Iran and Afghanistan,” a Pentagon press release notes. Additional funds are allocated for “Operations, Readiness, and Support” – troop training, replacement parts and equipment, combat supplies, and so on.
But a close examination of the FY 2009 request indicates that the principal sources of future budget growth are not the GWOT or other such low-intensity contingencies but rather preparation for all-out combat with a future superpower. Probe a little deeper into Pentagon thinking, and only one potential superpower emerges to justify all this vast spending: The People’s Republic of China.
Against whom are these super-sophisticated ships and planes intended to be deployed? Not Iran, which is still largely equipped with aging U.S. arms acquired in the 1970s during the reign of the former Shah. Not Syria or North Korea, both still equipped with Korean- and Vietnam War-era Soviet castoffs. Not any of the other so-called rogue states against which President Bush has railed so often. In fact, it is impossible to conceive of any adversary with the capacity to engage the United States on anything approaching major-power status except China.
[China confrontation] [Threat] [Camouflage]
Another ‘red scare'
BY ERIC MARGOLIS (World View)
9 March 2008
CHINA ‘threatens the stability of Asia.’ Such was the dire warning issued by the US Department of Defense last week, as it criticised the 17.6 per cent increase in China's 2008 military budget.
China's official military budget is $58.8 billion, but the real figure is estimated at around $110 billion. Even so, Washington's warning was pretty rich coming from the sole superpower that spends ten times more on its military than China — a nation with four times the US population.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates unblushingly accused China of ‘lack of transparency’ in concealing major defence programmes. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Some 25-30 per cent of the Pentagon's trillion-dollar budget is believed to be hidden in secret ‘black’ projects, or concealed in other government departments.
Washington's constant warnings about Cuba, Syria, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea make it look like a spinster terrified by a mouse. These nations’ combined military sending is a paltry $10 billion. The US and its closest allies account for two thirds of the world's military spending.
What is even more bizarre, while the Pentagon fulminates against the dangers of China, Iran, etc, the US is helping build the military power of a huge nation that one day could become a serious strategic rival to the United States — India.
The Bush Administration is striving to conclude a deal to supply Delhi nuclear fuel, technology, and billions of high-tech weapons. Meanwhile, India is developing nuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missiles and sea launched strategic missiles that might one day pose a challenge to the United States.
Why, no one in Washington is asking, does India need 7,000-mile range ICBM's, nuclear-powered missile submarines and powerful anti-ship missiles? Its current medium-range missiles cover all China. ICBM's are only needed by India to reach Europe, North America or Australia. India is unlikely to target Paris, London or Perth. But India will one day compete heavily with the US for Mideast oil, other resources and regional influence in the Gulf, Arabian Sea and even East Africa.
[Threat] [military balance] [Triangular] [India confrontation]
Visa-Free Visit Planned for Chinese
By Kim Tae-jong, Park Si-soo
Staff Reporters
Beginning this summer, the government plans to allow visa-free entrance for Chinese nationals.
Justice Minister Kim Kyung-han said Friday the measure is part of ongoing efforts by the new government to attract more tourists.
``The ministry will continue to ease visa restrictions on Chinese nationals so that we can get more Chinese tourists and hopefully help boost the economy,'' Kim told reporters at Incheon International Airport. [Tourism]
China Offers Detailed Defense of Its Sudan Policy
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: March 8, 2008
BEIJING — China has expressed "grave concerns" to the Sudanese government about the recent violence in western Darfur and is actively working to resolve delays in establishing an international peacekeeping force, China’s special envoy to Darfur said Friday.
The envoy, Liu Guijin, who recently returned from his fourth visit to Sudan, offered a detailed defense of China’s role in Darfur at a news conference at the Foreign Ministry here and repeated Beijing’s stance that activists were wrong to link the strife in Darfur to the Beijing Olympics in August.
Take Aid From China and Take a Pass on Human Rights
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: March 9, 2008
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka
FOR 25 years, the dirty little war on this island in the Indian Ocean has stretched its octopus arms across the world. The ethnic Tamil diaspora has provided vital funding for separatist rebels; remittances from Sri Lankan workers abroad have propped up the economy; the government has relied on foreign assistance to battle the insurgency.
Today, a shifting world order is bearing new fruits for Sri Lanka. Most notably, China’s quiet assertion in India’s backyard has put Sri Lanka’s government in a position not only to play China off against India, but also to ignore complaints from outside Asia about human rights violations in the war.
The timing is propitious. The government jettisoned a five-year cease-fire this year, and is now banking on a military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. In so doing, it has faced a barrage of criticism over human rights abuses and has lost defense aid from the United States and some other sources. And, in recent months, government officials have increasingly cozied up to countries that tend to say little to nothing on things like abductions and assaults on press freedom.
Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary, Palitha Kohona, put it plainly when he said that Sri Lanka’s "traditional donors," namely, the United States, Canada and the European Union, had "receded into a very distant corner," to be replaced by countries in the East. He gave three reasons: The new donors are neighbors; they are rich; and they conduct themselves differently. "Asians don’t go around teaching each other how to behave," he said. "There are ways we deal with each other — perhaps a quiet chat, but not wagging the finger."
The Tamil Tigers, for their part, have succeeded in getting themselves classified as a terrorist group in many countries, including the United States, Canada and the European Union, making it harder for the guerrillas to raise money abroad.
[Human rights] [Double standards] [China confrontation] [Media]
India's Movie Mecca Goes Global
Riding a Boom, Bollywood Evolves Into a Magnet for Investment and Talent
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 9, 2008; Page A17
MUMBAI -- When Amit Shah, a budding young actor born in Chicago, auditioned for a role in the upcoming Hollywood comedy "Fraternity House," the directors picked him to play an Indian exchange student. He was told to wear glasses and sport a thick Indian accent like Apu, the convenience store owner in television's "The Simpsons."
[FDI] [Globalisation]
China's Military Budget Reported at $59 Billion
Sharp Buildup Raises Concern in U.S.
By Jill Drew
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 5, 2008; Page A17
BEIJING, March 4 -- China announced Tuesday that it will again sharply increase its military spending this year, budgeting a 17.6 percent rise that is roughly equal to last year's increase.
Disclosure of plans for a $59 billion outlay in 2008 followed a Pentagon report Monday that raised questions about China's rapidly increasing military budget, and came less than three weeks before a presidential election in Taiwan, the self-governed island over which China claims sovereignty.
A spokesman for the Chinese legislature said the country's decade-long military buildup does "not pose a threat to any country," but he warned that relations with Taiwan were at a "crucial stage" and that the island would "surely pay a dear price" if it were to take steps that China viewed as a declaration of independence.
[China confrontation]
Pentagon Says China’s Boost to Space Plan Poses a Threat
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 4, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) — China is developing the ability to limit or prevent the use of satellites by potential adversaries, the Pentagon said Monday in a report to Congress.
The report, the latest annual assessment of China’s military power, highlights developments in China’s commercial space program and asserts that some of it can be of military use. It says Chinese leaders have been silent on the question of a military motivation for their space programs.
The report said “writings” by the Chinese military “emphasize the necessity of ‘destroying, damaging and interfering with the enemy’s reconnaissance/observation and communications satellites.’ ” Such writings suggest that those satellites, and navigation and early-warning satellites, “could be among initial targets of attack to blind and deafen the enemy,” it said.
China also appears to be developing cyberwarfare ability, according to the report.
[China confrontation]
'Common market' is bad economics, worse politics Fonts Size:
Taiwan News
Page 6
2008-03-05 01:20 AM
The call by Kuomintang presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou and running mate Vincent Siew for a "cross-strait common market" with the People's Republic of China as their core "long-term" vision has sparked considerable concern among grassroots voters and has become a rare "hot" issue in the March 22 presidential campaign.
Democratic Progressive Party rival Frank Hsieh has launched a flurry of intensive criticism of the KMT duo's plank as promoting a "one-China market" which would inevitably open Taiwan's agricultural and labor markets to PRC competition and undermine the livelihood and sustainability of Taiwan's economy.
South Asia
House of Commons
Foreign Affairs Committee
Fourth Report of Session 2006–07
Report, together with formal minutes, oral and
written evidence
Ordered by The House of Commons
to be printed 18 April 2007
HC 55
Published on 4 May 2007
by authority of the House of Commons
London: The Stationery Office Limited
Conclusions and recommendations
India rising
1. We conclude that the UK and India enjoy excellent bilateral relations on a wide
range of shared interests. We recommend that the Government sets out in its
response to this Report how bilateral relations between the UK and India could be
strengthened further in the future. (Paragraph 20)
India and the international system
2. We conclude that, given India’s size, economic growth and large contribution to the
work of the United Nations, there is a compelling case for granting it a permanent
seat on the Security Council, as part of wider reforms of the United Nations. We
recommend therefore that the British Government should continue its support for
India’s bid. We further recommend that the Government should encourage India to
work to reassure other G77 members of the benefits of a more efficient United
Nations. (Paragraph 30)
Growth Amid Change in Developing Asia
This volume contains an essay originally published in Asian Development Outlook 2007. It augments that publication’s contents by providing an extensive, new appendix. A central premise of the essay is that economies that successfully sustain growth do so by continuously adapting and changing their form. Incrementally, but steadily, they latch on to and master new and more productive activities, reaping gains along the way. Looking ahead, the essay notes that there are still enormous opportunities for developing Asia in terms of catching up with rich countries and speculates that for those countries where scale permits, progress will require the development of increasingly productive industrial and services sectors. Developing Asia must “walk on two legs.”
way.
At one level, the transformations associated with sustained fast
growth are well known. They entail a shift of output from agriculture to
both industry and services. Indeed to date, there has been no economy
in developing Asia that has sustained fast growth and economic catchup
that has not also successfully industrialized. Even Hong Kong,
China, which is a highly developed service economy, experienced
a manufacturing boom in the 1960s and 1970s. Historically, those
economies that have failed to industrialize have been unable to sustain
fast growth. One reason for this would appear to be that industry has
been where opportunities for productivity growth have been located.
While services have played an important role in mopping up surplus
labor from agriculture, this has often meant employment in lowproductivity,
informal activity.
China Narrows Tech Know-How Gap With Korea
China continues to catch up with Korea in technology know-how. A study in November found that the overall technology gap between Chinese and Korean manufacturers has now narrowed to 3.8 years. The study of 608 companies in 10 key industries was conducted by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade.
In terms of technology, Chinese firms were 4.7 years behind their Korean rivals in 2002 and four years behind in 2004. Korea is ahead of China by the largest margin or 4.1 years in steel making and textile industries.
[Technology gap] [Sandwich] [China competition]
Kim visit a sign of North, China tightening ties
March 03, 2008
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, second from left, greets Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming as he visits the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang on Saturday. [YONHAP]
The Lee Myung-bak administration¡¯s policy of reinforcing Seoul¡¯s alliance with Washington and expected changes in its North Korea policy appear to have prompted Pyongyang to bolster its alliance with Beijing over the weekend.
Kim Jong-il, the North¡¯s leader, revealed a sign of the new goal when he paid a visit to the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang Saturday to highlight the friendship between the two communist allies. Key aides, including General Kim Kyok-sik, chief of the general staff of the military, and First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju, accompanied Kim.
China closes technology gap with Korea: survey
March 03, 2008
To the dismay of the Lee Myung-bak administration, which pledged to create the world¡¯s seventh largest economy, Korea is falling behind advanced countries while a developing nation is snapping at its heels.
According to two recent state-funded surveys, which were conducted separately, the technological gap between Korea and China in the manufacturing sector is shrinking, and the service sector gap between Korea and advanced countries is widening.
[Sandwich]
Kim Jong Il Visits Chinese Embassy Here
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited the Chinese embassy here at the request of Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Liu Xeroxing on Saturday.
Kim Jong Il was greeted by the ambassador and other leading officials of the embassy.
Kim Jong Il received a bouquet from a staff member of the embassy and was warmly welcomed by all staff members of the embassy.
Delegation of Thaekam Co-op Farm Leaves for China
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- A delegation of the DPRK-China Friendship Thaekam Co-op Farm led by Chairman of its Management Board Jong Myong Chol left here today to visit China.
China, India, play it again for Uncle Sam
By M K Bhadrakumar
American diplomacy was on splendid display this week in two key Asian capitals - Beijing and New Delhi. China and India rolled out the red carpet to visiting cabinet officials from Washington. By a curious coincidence, the two top US officials - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates - chose the same block of dates to befriend the two Asian "rivals".
Amid the debris of the George W Bush administration's foreign policy in the Middle East, what is often overlooked is the extraordinary diplomatic gusto with which Washington goes about convincing the two Asian giants, China and India, that each is a privileged partner of the US's global strategies
All the same, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who was on a visit to Beijing last week, underscored the high importance of US-China relations. He told the China Daily on Sunday, "I consider that [his 1972 visit to China] the single-most important thing I did in government and the one that had the best permanent effect."
[China card] [US China] [US India] [
China leaves the US and India trailing
By M K Bhadrakumar
Hardly a week passes without Delhi taking stock of China's creeping "encirclement" of India. The Indian media reported on Thursday that Delhi denied permission for China's cargo carrier Great Wall Airlines to land in Mumbai or Chennai since the two Indian cities have "key nuclear facilities" which Chinese aeroplanes might reconnoiter.
That becomes more grist to the mill, though no one knows what it could be that the two aging Indian cities would hide that Google Earth hasn't yet spotted. Beijing predictably balked. Some Indian
strategic thinkers go so far as to call it China's "containment" of India - as if the Indian rogue elephant has gone berserk in the Asian courtyard and needs to be shackled.
Actually, the latest irritant shouldn't have been aerial reconnoitering, but China's upset win - trumping formidable rivals like the US, Canada and Russia - in the massive Afghan tender for copper mines. But the strategic community in Delhi doesn't know, as the Indian media kept it in the dark.
The news from the Hindu Kush would have made Indian thinkers pull their hair in despair. China has never been a player in Afghanistan in modern history. Indeed, it is a needless provocation on the part of the Chinese to be so utterly fearless of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. While India prides itself as a major donor for Afghan reconstruction - building roads, bridges, hospitals, a Parliament building and even, intriguingly, public toilets - China marches ahead and wins the tender for the Aynak cooper deposit in Afghanistan's Logar province bordering Kabul, which is billed as one of the world's largest copper mines.
The project involves US$4 billion in investment by China Metallurgical Group, which will be by far the biggest foreign investment in Afghanistan and is estimated to provide employment for 10,000 people. Significantly, the project includes the development of a railway system linking Afghanistan to China. (Nepal also has sought the extension of China's railway system from Lhasa to Kathmandu.)
Gates Hails US-India Military Relations
By LOLITA C. BALDOR – 5 days ago
NEW DELHI (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday he was not concerned about a missile test announced by Indian officials on the same day he was holding talks with the prime minister and other leaders.
Instead, he said he is impressed by how much the relationship between the American and Indian military has grown in recent years, and the United States is interested in further expanding that relationship.
India's quest to modernize its military against a backdrop of China's burgeoning defense growth and an ongoing regional terrorism threat are key focuses of Gates visit here.
[China confrontation] [US India]
Kim Jong-il Visits Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang: Report
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang Saturday amid efforts to restart the stalled six-party talks on denuclearizing the North, the communist state's official news media said.
"Kim Jong-il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission, visited the Chinese embassy here at the request of Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Liu Xiaoming on Saturday," the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Learning from Tata's Nano
The breakthrough innovations of the $2,500 Nano can carry a lot of important lessons for Western executives
by John Hagel and John Seely Brown
The announcement last month by Tata Motors of its newest car, the Nano, was revealing on many levels. The announcement generated extensive coverage and commentary, but just about everyone missed the Nano's real significance, which goes far beyond the car itself.
But, O.K., let's start with the car itself—particularly the price. At about $2,500 retail, the Nano is the most inexpensive car in the world. Its closest competitor, the Maruti 800, made in India by Maruti Udyog, sells for roughly twice as much. To put this in perspective, the price of the entire Nano car is roughly equivalent to the price of a DVD player option in a luxury Western car. The low price point has left other auto companies scrambling to catch up.
Thinking Outside the Patent Box
How could Tata Motors make a car so inexpensively? It started by looking at everything from scratch, applying what some analysts have described as "Gandhian engineering" principles—deep frugality with a willingness to challenge conventional wisdom.
But even this broader perspective fails to capture other significant dimensions of innovation. In fact, Tata Motors itself did not draw a lot of attention to what is perhaps the most innovative aspect of the Nano: its modular design. The Nano is constructed of components that can be built and shipped separately to be assembled in a variety of locations. In effect, the Nano is being sold in kits that are distributed, assembled, and serviced by local entrepreneurs.
China And India In First War Games
By HOWARD W. FRENCH
Published: December 21, 2007
China and India began a weeklong joint military exercise in China's southwestern Yunnan Province. The drills, which involve about 100 soldiers from each side, are intended at strengthening cooperation on anti-terrorism, according to China Daily. China and India fought a brief border war in 1962 and have been unable to resolve a related territorial dispute through negotiations.
[India China cooperation]
Containment of China hits roadblocks again
Letter from Asia
By Howard W. French Published: February 28, 2008
HANOI: A seductive idea has taken hold in certain foreign policy circles in recent years that suggests the best way to deal with a fast-rising China is to build ad hoc coalitions of the country's neighbors to constrain or somehow encircle it.
While never openly espoused by any government, the idea has tempted foreign policy thinkers not just in the United States, but in Japan and to a lesser degree perhaps Australia, too.
It is not hard to understand why, either, for the thought is beautiful in its simplicity. And while no one in a position of responsibility in any of these countries has started calling China an enemy, it is based on an ancient principle: that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
That this schema has never gotten very far off the ground has more than one cause.
First is China's own diplomatic skill in foreseeing the risk of encirclement and working assiduously to disarm it.
Globalization is important, too. Whether by dint of strategy or happenstance, the rise of China as an exporting powerhouse, combined with the relative openness of the Chinese economy, has created ever stronger linkages with the international economy, giving other countries, not least China's neighbors, a vital stake in its prospects.
The contrast with the rise of another East Asian manufacturing behemoth, Japan in the 1980s, couldn't be more striking. Japan's growth then was overwhelmingly seen as coming at the expense of competitors in the United States and in Europe. And because Japan never truly embraced foreign investment, few outsiders shared in the dividends from its rise.
One turns next to India, whose enthusiasm for things American is as high as it comes but stops well short of anything that even hints at a compact to contain China
[China confrontation] [FDI]
China to Reconsider One-Child Limit
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: February 29, 2008
BEIJING — China is studying how to move away from the country’s one-child-per-couple restriction, but any changes would come gradually and would not mean an elimination of family planning policies, a senior official said Thursday.
Dot Earth: An End to One-Child Families in China? The official, Zhao Baige, vice minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, told reporters at a news conference that government officials recognize that China must alter its current population-control policies.
Across a Nation, Olympic Fervor
Chinese See Games as Global Recognition of Country's Progress
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 29, 2008; Page A01
SHENYANG, China -- Chen Guangbing's horizon is largely confined to Zhong Jie, a crowded pedestrian street cutting through central Shenyang where he hawks peanuts, pistachios and cashews from a rickety wooden table.
Sino-Indian Relations: The Four Disconnects
by Satu Limaye
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit this week to Beijing is another step in the glacial movement of Sino-Indian relations that have been frozen since India was defeated in a border war in 1962. In the past decade or so, both sides have re-engaged with each other – exchanging high-level visits, marking important anniversaries, opening trade and travel, and holding talks on a range of issues. But the relationship is characterized by four disconnects that will continue to constrain relations.
India Draws More and More Korean Students
Indian military band musicians take part in India's Republic Day parade in New Delhi on Jan. 26, 2008. /REUTERS
An increasing number of Korean children now study in India, where they can learn English more cheaply than in the U.S. or the U.K. Parents are also impressed by the reputed strengths of Indian education in math and science, making the country an affordable alternative to the traditional destinations for Korea’s "educational refugees."
According to the Indian Embassy in Seoul, an increasing number of elementary and secondary school students go to India on student visas every year. In 2005, the number was 1,156, but in 2006, the number increased to 1,435. There are about 100 Korean students at the prestigious Woodstock School in the northern Indian city of Dehradun, or 20 percent of the 500-strong student body. [Services] [Education] [IM]
Sagarika missile test-fired successfully
T.S. Subramanian
India joins select club in underwater missile capability
CHENNAI: India on Tuesday proved that it had the capability to launch missiles from underwater by test-firing successfully the Sagarika missile from a pontoon off the coast of Visakhapatnam. The pontoon simulated the conditions of a submarine. [Military balance]
Gates Visit to India Latest Sign of Growing Military Ties
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, shakes hands with India's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee before a meeting in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, 26 Feb. 2008
India's prime minister and defense minister are among the top government officials who are to meet in New Delhi with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. VOA correspondent Steve Herman reports from the Indian capital the visit is the latest example of growing defense ties between the United States and India.
[US India] [China confrontation]
China’s High Tech Industry and the World Economy: Zhongguancun Park [1]
Yu Zhou
Can Chinese companies innovate in cutting-edge technology? It is a question many have been asking in the last few years as the size and dynamism of China’s economy become apparent. This article focuses on the development of Chinese companies in the information and telecommunication sectors of industry, conventionally known as “Information Communication Technology” (ICT) [2], among the most dynamic, profitable and globalized industries.
It is often argued that China’s rapid economic growth and national competitiveness are driven by its booming export industry, powered primarily by foreign affiliated companies. In this way, China appears to closely follow the footstep of Japan, and other smaller Asian dragons, starting from labor-intensive industry and gradually moving up the value chain. This story is not wrong, but it is incomplete — two other factors are also at play in China: rapidly emerging competitive domestic firms, and a vast and dynamic domestic market. While the western business world is agog with enthusiasm about a Chinese market that it hopes to dominate, this study examines how this market, in conjunction with China’s export industry, are creating powerful synergetic forces for indigenous companies. I approach the rise of Chinese companies historically by retracing the footsteps of China’s most prominent science park — Zhongguancun (ZGC hereafter) in Beijing — where many of the most dynamic indigenous companies were born. The article concludes that the growth and competitiveness of China’s own technological companies may eventually create more lasting impact on the future global landscape than China’s vaunted labor force.
China is not content with being simply a labor-intensive manufacturing workshop for foreign MNCs. Nor is it satisfied with technology acquisition and upgrading through a gradual process, through the export commodity chain, as some Southeast Asian countries have done. While that process is running its course in coastal China, China hopes that its enormous and fast-growing domestic market will also propel its best-endowed regions directly into the innovative technology market, while being open to MNC investment and competition. ZGC thus was designed as an incubator to create globally competitive technological leadership.
[IPR]
Budweiser, Miller…and Tsingtao?
As part of its global expansion plan, China's leading beermaker aims to break out of the niche market in the U.S.
by Chi-Chu Tschang
Asia
Visitors degust Tsingtao beer at a bar in the Tsingtao beer factory in Qingdao, Shandong Province of China. Getty Images
Crown Imports, the largest beer importer in the U.S., sells more Tsingtao beer every year during Chinese New Year than any other period. This year, it's been pulling out all the stops. Chicago-based Crown (a subsidiary of Constellation Brands (STZ)) has persuaded Costco Wholesale (COST) to carry China's most famous beer in several stores in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest on a trial basis during celebrations of the Year of the Rat, which started on Feb. 7. If Tsingtao sells well, Costco may consider stocking the Chinese import beer year-round. Crown Imports has also signed up celebrity chef Martin Yan to kick off a marketing blitz in a bid to expand Tsingtao outside Chinatown and into downtown U.S.A.
Tsingtao is China's oldest and most famous beer, with a 13% market share at home.
[Brand]
India's Young Pick Up A Dangerous Addiction
Smoking Epidemic Foreseen Causing Millions of Deaths
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 21, 2008; Page A12
NEW DELHI, Feb. 20 -- Lounging in a smoke-filled cafe, Purvi Ahuja, 20, and her hip friends like their text messages to be fast, their cappuccinos to be milky and their cigarettes to be plentiful.
"I know it's so bad. My skin is even gross, my lips are black because of it," sighed Ahuja, her ashtray filled with cigarette butts. Her friends, a pilot and a writer, took long drags on their cigarettes, exhaled puffs of smoke and agreed that it's just not easy to stop smoking.
Young Indians, especially young women like Ahuja, represent one of the cigarette companies' largest markets. Because they are so heavily targeted, they are also at particular risk of smoking-related death, according to health officials.
Recent findings from the first nationally representative study of smoking in India found that this country is in the grip of a smoking epidemic likely to cause nearly a million deaths a year starting in 2010. There are 120 million smokers in India, half of them younger than 30, the study found. India has a larger population of smokers than any other country in the world except China.
U.S.-China Relations
An Affirmative Agenda, A Responsible Course
Chairs: Carla A. Hills, Co-Chairman; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hills & Company
Dennis C. Blair, Former Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Command
Director: Frank Sampson Jannuzi, Hitachi International Affairs Fellow
Surging Indian economy puts bat to ball, and hits six after six
Daniel Flitton
February 21, 2008
IMAGINE being an umpire on the next cricket tour in India. Think of the intense pressure the moment before raising your finger, hearing the crowd bay in the stands, knowing — perhaps even fearing — there will be a challenge by India's powerful cricket board to any controversial decision.
India is now the superpower of world cricket. In market terms, India has a hat-trick: a huge population of eager supporters, cashed-up corporations to pay out big sponsorship dollars, and a rapidly growing media industry. All this brings enormous influence.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has made closer ties with India a priority — a shift begun by the Howard government, but one that he appears especially keen to accelerate.
India is a fast-growing market for Australian goods and services, increasing at more than 30% a year. But there is a political imperative too. India offers Smith the chance to cultivate an important bilateral relationship without constantly checking back with his boss. Kevin Rudd's passion for international relations is well known — and so are his favourites.
Rudd has already described preserving Australia's close ties with the US as core business for the Prime Minister; Indonesia is another special case; while the Mandarin-speaking former diplomat is also expected to keep a careful watch over relations with Beijing.
Not that Rudd will ignore India. Again, there is a political reason at play. Rudd needs to pre-empt any accusations he is too obsessed with China, especially with continued concern over Beijing's human rights record and corrupt business practices.
China fear scuppers $2bn deal for 3Com
By Henny Sender in New York and Mure Dickie in Beijing
Published: February 20 2008 19:09 | Last updated: February 21 2008 02:22
Bain Capital and its minority Chinese partner, Huawei Technologies, have shelved their $2.2bn deal to acquire 3Com, a US computer networking company, saying a key Washington committee charged with vetting foreign investments in sensitive sectors had told Bain it would not approve the purchase.
The setback to the deal highlights rising protectionist sentiment in the US as both Democrats and Republicans seek to woo an American electorate suspicious of foreign investment and the effects of globalisation on domestic jobs.
[China confrontation] [Protectionism]
U.S. Security Concerns Block China’s 3Com Deal
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
Published: February 21, 2008
WASHINGTON — Does the "America for Sale" sign require a warning label?
That would seem to be the case in light of the apparent collapse on Wednesday of a Chinese company’s effort to purchase a stake in 3Com, an American maker of Internet router and networking equipment, in the face of Bush administration questions about the deal’s national security risks.
The proposed $2.2 billion deal had called for Bain Capital, a private equity firm based in Boston, to join with a Chinese company, Huawei Technologies, to acquire 3Com. The snag was that 3Com makes antihacking computer software for the military, among other things, and Huawei Technologies has ties to the Chinese military
[China confrontation] [Protectionism]
Police Raid in China Kills Two Suspected of Planning Attacks
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 19, 2008; Page A12
BEIJING, Feb. 18 -- China said Monday that police in the western region of Xinjiang had carried out a deadly raid against a group of extremists planning a series of attacks.
The conspirators were said to be members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a separatist group classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Chinese governments. Separatists have previously staged bombings in Xinjiang, where Uighurs, who are Muslim, make up the largest ethnic group.
[Double standards]
Doing Business the Hard way in India's Wild East
By Simon Denyer
Reuters
Sunday, February 17, 2008; 11:38 PM
HAJIPUR, India (Reuters) - The white envelope filled with ten 500 rupee ($13) notes was dispatched to the electricity board official as a "goodwill gesture."
Soon it came back, with a message from a subordinate. The official was not playing ball -- at least not at that price.
"He refused to accept it, and now he is cooking up a problem," the factory manager said as the envelope was handed back. "I will have to pay the bugger 20,000 ($500) in the evening."
The manager had wanted a second power line for an extension for his small factory in the Hajipur Industrial Area in India's eastern state of Bihar. A simple request, the official had threatened to tie it up in endless red tape, unless he was paid.
The routine way the bribe was offered, and the way the episode unfolded in front of a Reuters correspondent, offers a tiny insight into the problems of doing business in a state which has become a byword for poverty, lawlessness and corruption.
[Corruption]
Spielberg breached Olympic spirit, says Beijing
By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Published: February 15 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 15 2008 02:00
Organisers of the Beijing Olympics denounced any linking of sport and politics as a contravention of the "Olympic spirit" yesterday following the resignation of Steven Spielberg, the US film director, as an artistic adviser on the games' opening and closing ceremonies.
In spite of its insistence on keeping politics out of sport, the Olympics organising committee (Bocog) joined the foreign ministry in defending China's stance on Darfur, which had been cited by Mr Spielberg as the reason for his resignation.
Bocog said it was obvious to any "unprejudiced" observer that the Chinese government had made "unremitting efforts" for peace in the region, and that it "regretted" Mr Spielberg's statement.
The tardiness of Bocog's reaction reflects both the political sensitivity of Olympic issues in China and the difficulty the Communist government faces in trying to influence the international news agenda surrounding the world's biggest sporting festival. In China, the censored mainstream media almost totally ignored Mr Spielberg's resignation.
[Media] [Manipulation]
One, two or many Chinas?
Jeffrey N Wasserstrom
The waterfall of global commentary about China makes it even more important to appreciate the country's sheer variety and complexities. Here, Jeffrey N Wasserstrom offers a view from the classroom about how these can be conveyed.
15 - 02 - 2008
China is continually part of the global news agenda, a tendency that is certain to accelerate in 2008 as its supercharged economy develops and as Beijing hosts the Olympic games on 8-24 August. This media coverage of China in the west is often dominated by emotionally charged stories, of which the reports of the film director Steven Spielberg's about-face on 12 February - from considering playing an advisory role in planning the spectacles that will accompany the Olympics to criticising the Chinese Communist Party for its policy in Africa - is but one example. In such times, it is important if not always easy to avoid the tendency to oversimplify contemporary China. But how can outside observers escape this trap?
Jeffrey N Wasserstrom is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine.
His most recent book is China's Brave New World-And Other Tales for Global Times (Indiana University Press, 2007), and his next will be Global Shanghai, 1850-2010 (Routledge, forthcoming).
He writes for a wide range of academic and general interest periodicals and is a founding member of a new group blog on Chinese issues, The China Beat: Blogging How the East Is Read In the Chinese history courses I teach, one of my goals is simply to get students to think of the country as an incredibly diverse place - and realise that popular western images of "China" thus often only have relevance for particular social groups or particular regions.
Chen urges cooperation with 'Spratly Initiative'
Publication Date:02/14/2008
By Edwin Hsiao
President Chen Shui-bian became the first ROC leader to set foot on Taiping Island in Taiwan's Spratly island group Feb. 2 when visiting for the inauguration of a new airstrip constructed there for humanitarian purposes.
The Spratly --or Nansha in Chinese --Islands, are 1,600 kilometers south of Taiwan in the South China Sea. The archipelago consists of more than 100 islets or reefs and sea mounts scattered over the central South China Sea. In addition to Taiwan, China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam claim all or parts of sovereignty over the Spratlys, which possibly hold large oil and gas reserves. About 45 of the atolls are occupied by relatively small numbers of military personnel from Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, China and Vietnam.
Along with the Spratly Islands, Taiwan also maintains historical claims over three other island groups in the South China Sea: Pratas (Dongsha), Paracel (Sisha) and Macclesfield Bank (Jhongsha). Currently, the reach of Taiwan's effective jurisdiction includes Taiping and the Pratas Islands.
But the opening of the airstrip and Chen's visit to Taiwan's outlying regions has caused concern in the Philippines
China: Partner or predator in Africa?
By Greg Mills and Chris Thompson
The conventional wisdom is that China presents Africa with major threats and opportunities, and that there is growing tension between the United States and China over the latter’s evolving African interests. On paper, at least, the nascent interest of China in Africa looks to the latter’s advantage.
NK Leader May Visit China in March
Kim Jong-il
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is expected to visit China in March to discuss issues of mutual concern including the North's economic reform, a report said Sunday.
China wants to invite Kim in late March when the National People's Congress ends, Yonhap news agency reported, quoting unidentified multiple diplomatic sources.
The Congress is considered the top power organ of China.
``I understand that China plans to arrange Kim's visit before Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Japan in mid-April,'' a source was quoted as saying by Yonhap.
In India's Huge Marketplace, Advertisers Find 'Fair' Sells
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, January 27, 2008; Page A01
MUMBAI T he TV ad shows an Indian movie star walking on a beach, flaunting his brand-name sunglasses and his six-pack abs. A white woman in a black bikini drops on the sand from nowhere, and then another woman drops down. Soon, a bevy of white models literally falls from the skies, and the movie star runs for cover.
A green-eyed model from Iceland puts her arms around him and whispers seductively, "The fall collection . . . baby."
The ad was for a sunglasses company, but its approach was hardly unique in the world of Indian advertising. These days, the faces of white women and men, mostly from Eastern Europe, stare out from billboards, from facades of glitzy, glass-fronted malls and from fashion magazines. At an international automobile exposition this month in New Delhi, most of the models were white.
Shanghai's Middle Class Launches Quiet, Meticulous Revolt
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, January 26, 2008; Page A01
SHANGHAI -- Bundled against the cold, the businessman made his way down the steps. Coming toward him in blue mittens was a middle-aged woman.
"Do you know that we're going to take a stroll this weekend?" she whispered, using the latest euphemism for the unofficial protests that have unnerved authorities in Shanghai over the past month.
Day of Republic of India Observed
Pyongyang, January 24 (KCNA) -- The Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries and the DPRK-India Friendship Association held a film show and a friendly meeting at the Taedonggang Club for the Diplomatic Corps on Thursday on the occasion of the Day of the Republic of India.
Present there on invitation were Zile Singh, Indian ambassador to the DPRK, and staff members of the embassy here.
On hand were Jon Yong Jin, vice-chairman of the committee and the association, members of the association and working people in the city.
The participants watched an Indian feature film.
Then followed a friendly meeting.
Its participants talked to one another about the need to boost the relations between the DPRK and India, deepening the friendship.
Korean Businessmen ‘Live in Fear’ in Qingdao
After a several South Korean business owners fled China under cover of darkness, a growing number of Koreans suffer harassment there, including being watched, being held against their will, kidnapping and assault. An official with the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Qingdao said Korean nationals are frequently assaulted or kidnapped in the region due to outstanding payment or debt. Four or five such cases occur every week
The United States and Sino-Vietnamese Relations
Brantly Womack
In 1944 President Franklin Roosevelt dispatched vice president Henry A. Wallace to meet with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and offer him the “return” of Indochina to China. Chiang wisely declined the offer. [1]
Henry Wallace in China
Although the idea was as far from the history and realities of East Asia as a comet passing overhead, it was not without its reason. The idea stemmed from Roosevelt’s general anti-colonial views and his awareness that the Second World War would provide an opportunity to transform world political geography. Moreover, relations between China and Vietnam had never been so close as in the previous half century. Oppression by Western imperialism had for the first time in their long intertwined history given China and Vietnam a common threat. Vietnam provided the base for most of Sun Yat-sen’s numerous unsuccessful uprisings in 1907-8 against the Qing Dynasty, and similarly Guangzhou was an important base for early Vietnamese revolutionaries. Later, the Guomindang (GMD) worked with its sister party the Vietnam Nationalist Party (VNQDD), and the Communist Party of China, and occasionally the GMD, were in intimate contact with Ho Chi Minh and the Indochinese Communist Party. From the distant office of a busy and powerful leader trying to shape a post-war world, the idea seemed attractive.
China, Japan and World Food Insecurity
Motegi Yoshinobu
In 1995 Lester Brown published a book, Who Will Feed China? Wake-up Call to a Small Planet. Among the most influential accounts warning of the dire consequences of China’s growing appetite for food and resources, the book ignited an international debate centered on the domestic and international consequences of China’s mega-growth. Although China continued to lose land to urbanization, and faces acute water shortages and pollution issues, it retained high levels of food self-sufficiency in most areas and the predicted famine did not occur as rising world food prices prompted increased food production. Indeed, China has not only maintained high levels of grain self-sufficiency, but maintains a balance of export and import of grain that is price sensitive and transport sensitive.
[China demand]
China to Overtake Korea in Tech Power in 3 Years - Survey
Nearly seven out of 10 Korean companies doing business with China think that China will overtake Korea in technological power in three years. That's according to a survey of 390 companies on the potential effects on Korean industry of a free trade agreement with China released by the Korea International Trade Association on Monday.
Some 68.2 percent of respondents said that it would take less than three years for China to pull ahead of Korea in terms of technological power. Some 15.1 percent said it would take less than one year and 51.7 percent said between one to three years. Some 1.4 percent said that China has already overtaken Korea.
[China competition] [Sandwich]
More Aid for Those Seeking China Exit
By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
Business and trade support centers are typically serviced to those seeking startups, but recently, a new type of assistance is being offered. It's for those who want out of China.
Crippled by the quick-to-change state regulations and slashed incentives, more than 45 Korean owners last year alone fled Qingdao, a eastern port city where Korean firms are concentrated, in the middle of the night.
China Becomes Korea's Largest Importer
China has displaced Japan to become the largest importer of South Korean goods. The Korea Customs Service said Sunday that the lion's share of South Korea's exports last year, US$82 billion worth, went to China.
The U.S. was next with $45.8 billion, followed by Japan with $26.4 billion and Hong Kong with $18.6 billion.
Meanwhile most of South Korea's imports came from China, at $63 billion. Japan was the second largest source of foreign goods at $56.2 billion, followed by the U.S. with $37.2 billion.
China maintained its largest exporter status from the previous year but also became the largest importer over Japan. Russia became a new addition to Korea's list of top ten exporting countries with $8 billion.
Creating a Car Culture in China
New Owners Among Growing Middle Class Find Sense of Freedom, 'Taste the Fun'
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 21, 2008; Page A10
BEIJING -- Three years ago, Chen Chao was a clean-cut insurance broker who wore suits and cuff links to work. Today, the 27-year-old founder of the K-One Car Club is most often found in his auto tuning shop, sporting a leather jacket and long dark hair with light streaks.
In good weather, he organizes unofficial road races that attract hundreds of spectators in Beijing's distant suburbs.
As China's middle class expands, Chen and his customers are among the hundreds of thousands of new car owners hitting the roads each year, driving up imports of luxury cars, snarling traffic, creating a car culture and reveling in what many Chinese describe as a newfound sense of freedom. In China today, owning a car is what owning a television set was in 1950s America. [Auto]
Brown beckons Chinese fund
By George Parker in Beijing
Published: January 18 2008 04:17 | Last updated: January 18 2008 16:32
Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, on Friday urged China’s new $200bn sovereign wealth fund to use London as a hub for its international operations, contrasting Britain’s “open door” policy with protectionist signals from the US, France and Germany.
Mr Brown’s wooing of China Investment Corp won a warm response from Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier, who vowed the huge investment fund would operate on “a totally corporate basis, without intervention from the government”.
Britain is keen to demonstrate its openness to CIC and other sovereign funds, in contrast to attitudes in France and Germany.
Chinese investments are a hot topic in the US, where political worries sank a bid by China's state-controlled oil company Cnooc for the American major Unocal in 2005. The US is reviewing involvement of a Chinese telecommunications equipment company in a takeover of its US rival 3Com.
[ODI]
China’ Analyzes Sino-Centric East Asia
Chinese Olympic volunteers dressed in costumes of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games mascots, perform during a show to celebrate the New Year in Xian, northern China's Shaanxi province Jan. 1 and usher in the year of the Olympic Games. From Jan. 1, there will be 220 days until the start of Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games, and Beijing is estimated to host some 500,000 to 800,000 foreign visitors as the city will be under the world's gaze as never before.
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
There is no doubt that China is emerging as a central power in East Asia, influencing almost all fields of the economy and the military to recently even contemporary arts.
China is modernizing its military, which has joined numerous regional and international institutions, and plays an increasingly visible role in international politics. Foreign corporations are flocking to invest in China and also Chinese exports have begun to boom in the world.
In response to this growth, East Asia countries have moved to strengthen their military, economic, and diplomatic relations with China.
But why have these countries accommodated rather than balanced China's rise?
``China Rising'' written by David C. Kang published by Columbia University Press delves into the issue through analyzing major actors in its neighboring countries and its strategy.
Keen to increase trade with India: Australia
18 Jan, 2008, 0107 hrs
NEW DELHI: The Australian government may have decided not to sell uranium to India but it is yet to take a decision on whether to extend support to India in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) after getting a representation from the Indian government.
Speaking to ET on a variety of bilateral issues, Australian trade minister Simon Crean said his government is waiting for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards agreement before evolving a policy on supporting India in the NSG. “That’s a consideration we will make at the appropriate time. We have taken serious note of the representation made by Mr Shyam Saran,” he said. “We understand the importance of this agreement,” he added.
Made in China, recalled in Britain
· Imports blamed for 22% rise in faulty products
· Unions claim outsourcing is affecting quality
Robert Booth The Guardian, Monday January 14 2008
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Advertising guide License/buy our content About this articleClose This article appeared in the Guardian on Monday January 14 2008 on p5 of the UK news section. It was last updated at 23:52 on January 13 2008. The number of dangerous or faulty products recalled in Britain hit an all-time high last year, with an influx of cheap goods from China to blame, according to a survey published today.
The number of consumer products recalled amid health and safety fears rose by 22% in 2007. The number of lines taken off the shelves, including food and drink and pharmaceuticals, rose to 192, City law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain said.
The authorities place the onus for ensuring safety on the companies that supply the product rather than its manufacturer. Mattel, which recalled 18.2 million Chinese-made toys worldwide last year, admitted most resulted from a design flaw by Mattel.
[Blame] [Quality] [Offshoring]
Opposition party scores massive victory in legislative elections
Publication Date:01/18/2008
By Edwin Hsiao
Even to the opposition Kuomintang's own surprise, it scored a resounding victory over the ruling Democratic Progressive Party in the seventh legislative elections Jan. 12. The KMT won 81 seats, including 57 district seats, four aboriginal seats and 20 at-large seats. The final tally meant there would be a significant shift in power, with the KMT securing a 71.68-percent representation share of the 113-seat Legislative Yuan.
If Ma does go on to capture the presidency in the March election, the KMT might well be in a position to end years of stalemate between Taiwan's legislative and executive branches and possibly stabilize the island's relations with China.
MOEA set to boost exports, target Middle East markets
Publication Date:01/18/2008
By Liu King-pong
The Bureau of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs has set the nation's export growth target for 2008 at 8 percent, meaning the total value of exports could gain at least another US$500 billion. The MOEA also separately announced its intention to focus more on gaining entry to Middle Eastern markets. [Taiwan]
'Night Flights' Bad for Both China and Korea
Cases like this are becoming more common among Korean business owners who set up operations in China. Eighteen such cases were reported in the city of Qingdao in 2004, and that number surged to 43 in the first nine months of 2007. The real number of such incidents is likely much higher if you count small operations that are not officially registered.
[FDI]
The Impact of the Emerging Powers on the World Economy
Federico Steinberg
ARI 4/2008 (Translated from Spanish) - 15/1/2008
Theme: The emerging powers that have burst onto the world economic scene are causing an unprecedented structural change. This ARI looks at its main implications.
Summary: This ARI examines the economic and political implications of the rise of emerging powers in the world economy. It gives a brief overview of how their weight and influence have evolved in recent years and analyses their impact in terms of macroeconomics and trade, and their effect on wages and capital in various sectors. Finally, it notes the impact this process will have on the Spanish economy and the challenges the latter will face. [China competition]
China and India: Energy and Climate Change (ARI)
Pablo Bustelo
ARI 136/2007 (Translated from Spanish) - 14/1/2008
Theme: The annual report that the International Energy Agency published in November and especially some of the arguments put forth by certain countries at the recent summit in Bali on climate change have sought with varying degrees of directness to criticise Asia’s two great emerging economies.
Summary: Both in the IEA report and in some of the arguments used at the Bali Summit, Asia’s two major emerging economies (China and India) were all but accused of being co–responsible for the planet’s energy and environmental problems. These accusations are groundless. This analysis points out that, first, some of the most striking data in the IEA report are actually misleading, and, secondly, that the sensible positions of the major developing countries were not heeded in Bali, and this contributed greatly to the summit’s having yielded disappointing results.
Park Geun-hye Attends Lee Meeting With China Envoy
President-elect Lee Myung-bak on Monday met with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a meeting that was doubly notable for the attendance of his former party rival Park Geun-hye. Lee reassured Wang that South Korea “never neglects relations with China" and proposed strengthening bilateral ties and economic cooperation. Wang had remarked on media speculation that Seoul-Beijing relation could suffer while South Korea tries to mend ties with Washington and Tokyo.
Trade Between S.Korea and China Tops $150 Bil.
The total volume of bilateral trade between Korea and China has topped US$150 billion for the first time in history.
The Korean Embassy in China, citing trade statistics published by the Chinese Customs General Administration, said that the trade volume between the two countries jumped 19.1 percent from 2006 to $159.8 billion in 2007.
The Chinese cars in the bargain basement
With a little time to spare in Detroit, I have been taking a tour of the Chinese-made cars on display at the auto show. They are not easy to find, since they are located in the basement of the Cobo conference centre in a secondary hall also occupied by satellite radio companies and custom-car makers.
But, after asking a security guard the way, I managed to find the stands of the Chinese manufacturers including Geely, the biggest Chinese car manufacturer, BYD Auto of Shenzen (the initials stand for Build Your Dreams) and Changfeng Group, originally a spin-off of a People's Liberation Army factory.
My impression from sitting in the cars, fiddling with the knobs and peering at the door seals is that the Chinese makers are advancing but that Daimler and BMW need not panic yet. [Auto] [China competition]
Reception Given by Chinese Ambassador
Pyongyang, January 12 (KCNA) -- Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Liu Xiaoming gave a reception at his embassy Friday on the occasion of the second anniversary of Kim Jong Il's visit to the People's Republic of China.
China, India say growing ties could 'change face of Asia, even the world'
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008
BEIJING — Leaders of the world's two fastest growing major economies, China and India, set out sweeping goals Monday to build trade and put behind them decades of hostility and mistrust.
The two nations, whose populations constitute a third of humanity, declared that their growing ties wouldn't put at risk either country's own alliances, an apparent reference to warming U.S.-Indian relations.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Premier Wen Jiabao of China, after unusually lengthy talks, emerged to say that the two nations would conduct new joint military exercises this year, designed to ease frictions along their once-tense border.
The border issue remains a festering matter. China still claims much of India's vast northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which it says is part of Tibet.
[Border war] [Media]
Preservation of the Koguryo heritage
Yonson Ahn
The ancient kingdom, Koguryo/Gaogouli (37BC – 668AD) encompassed an area from central Manchuria to Primorsky Krai (the extreme Southeastern region of Russia) to the central part of the Korean peninsular at the height of its power, around the fifth century AD. Koguryo remains, including of walled towns, fortresses, palaces and tombs, as well as wall paintings and artifacts, have been found on both sides of the Chinese-North Korean border as well as in South Korea (the ROK). The remains and relics in the People's Republic of China (PRC) reflect the history and culture of the early and mid-period Koguryo kingdom; they also showcase Koguryo's architectural style and pioneering new patterns of city construction, in which both mountain cities and plain cities were successfully constructed.(1)
China bypasses Korea as the No. 1 shipbuilder
January 12, 2008
China surpassed Korea to become the world’s biggest shipbuilder by new orders in 2007, according to data compiled by Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker.
Chinese shipbuilders booked orders for 103.6 million deadweight tons of ships, compared with Korea’s 94.8 million, according to data from London-based Clarksons.
Shipyards in China booked orders at historically high prices last year, more than tripling order backlogs at the nation’s shipyards. Demand for vessels to carry Chinese imports of raw materials and exports of consumer goods is fueling earnings growth at shipbuilders, including China State Shipbuilding, the nation’s biggest.
Opposition Wins Vote in Taiwan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 12, 2008
Filed at 1:06 p.m. ET
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party won a landslide victory in legislative elections Saturday, giving a big boost to its policy of closer engagement with China two months before a presidential poll it now seems poised to win.
President Chen Shui-bian, who has been criticized for aggravating relations with China by promoting policies to formalize Taiwan's de facto independence, resigned as chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party immediately after the extent of the defeat became clear.
''I should shoulder all responsibilities,'' Chen said. ''I feel really apologetic and shamed.''
His resignation does not affect his status as president.
With all votes counted, the official Central Election Commission said the Nationalists had won 81 seats in the 113-seat Legislature, against only 27 for the DPP, with four going to Nationalist-leaning independents, and one to a Nationalist satellite party.
Critics say Chen's China policies have allowed Taiwan's once-vibrant economy to lose competitiveness and have ratcheted up tension in the perennially edgy Taiwan Strait
Tata Nano: The World’s Cheapest Car
By Richard S. Chang
Tags: Nano, Peoples Car, tata motors
Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors, displaying the Nano in New Delhi on Thursday. (Photo by Money Sharma/European Pressphoto Association)Tata Motors today took the covers off the world’s cheapest car — the Nano.
Over the past year, Tata has been building hype for a car that would cost a mere 100,000 rupees (roughly $2,500) and bring automotive transportation to the mainstream Indian population. It has been nicknamed the “People’s Car.” Over the course of the New Delhi Auto Expo, which began this week, anticipation had grown to fever pitch.
Keeping an Eye on an Unruly Neighbor: Chinese
Views of Economic Reform and Stability in North Korea
By Bonnie Glaser, Scott Snyder, and John S. Park
January 8th, 2008
Bonnie Glaser, senior associate at CSIS as well
as with Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu, Hawaii,
Scott Snyder, senior associate of Washington
programs in the International Relations program
of The Asia Foundation, and John S. Park, expert
on Northeast Asian security issues at the U.S.
Institute of Peace, write, “In the event of
instability in North Korea, China’s priority will
be to prevent refugees from flooding across the
border. If deemed necessary, PLA troops would be
dispatched into North Korea... Contingency plans
are in place for the PLA to perform at least
three possible missions in the DPRK: 1)
humanitarian missions such as assisting refugees
or providing help after a natural disaster; 2)
peacekeeping or “order keeping” missions such as
serving as civil police; and 3) “environmental
control” missions to clean up nuclear
contamination resulting from a strike on North
Korean nuclear facilities near the Sino-DPRK
border and secure “loose nukes” and fissile material.”
The views expressed in this article are those of
the author and do not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position of the Nautilus
Institute. Readers should note that Nautilus
seeks a diversity of views and opinions on
contentious topics in order to identify common ground.
5,000-km range Agni to be tested in '09
8 Jan 2008, 0000 hrs IST,TNN
The Times of India
SMS NEWS to 58888 for latest updates
NEW DELHI: India hopes to test a long-range missile with near ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capabilities - largely the preserve of countries like US, Russia, China, France and UK till now - by early next year.
Defence Research and Development Organisation chief controller for missiles, V K Saraswat, said on Monday that the Agni-III-plus missile, with a strike range in excess of 5,000 km, was in the design stage at present. ''We are looking for trial in early 2009,'' he said on the sidelines of the 95th Indian Science Congress at Visakhapatnam.
[Military balance] [China confrontation]
Friendly Gathering with Chinese Embassy Officials Held
Pyongyang, January 7 (KCNA) -- The Foreign Ministry of the DPRK arranged a friendly gathering with staff members of the Chinese embassy here on Jan. 7 on the occasion of the New Year, Juche 97 (2008).
Present there on invitation were Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, and embassy officials.
On hand were Pak Ui Chun, minister of Foreign Affairs, and officials of the foreign ministry.
Speeches were made at the gathering.
The participants in the meeting talked about the need to boost the DPRK-China relations in the New Year, too, deepening the friendship.
The £1,290 car delights Indians but horrifies the green lobby
Amelia Gentleman in New Delhi
Sunday January 6, 2008
The Observer
After years of secret preparation, the world's cheapest car will be unveiled in Delhi this week - delighting millions of Indians as much as it is horrifying environmentalists.
At 100,000 rupees (£1,290), the People's Car, designed and manufactured by Tata, is being marketed as a safer way of travelling for those who until now have had to transport their families balanced on the back of their motorbikes.
BBC children's series confirms India is centre of animation
Katie Allen, media business correspondent The Guardian, Wednesday January 2 2008 India has long been known as an outsourcing hub for call centres and computer support. Now a new BBC children's series airing this week will cement its position as a global centre for animators.
With a £10m budget, India-animated Freefonix is one of the BBC's biggest ever animation projects. The futuristic tale of mismatched musicians was two years in the making across three continents and involved more than 200 people
[Animation] [Offshoring]
Inside the UK's fastest machine
£113m HECToR will help British researchers simulate everything from climate change to financial markets
It measures up well internationally, sitting at 17 in the top500.org list of the most powerful computers in the world. The top 10 is dominated by machines built by the US military or department of energy.
In the top slot is BlueGene/L system a joint project between IBM and the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. It is installed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and performs at 478.2 teraflops - around eight times faster than HECToR. Two German computers, one in Spain and one in Sweden, sit above HECToR in the speed rankings. A new computer at India's Computational Research Laboratories in Pune is at number four on the list. This year is the first time India has been in the top 10.
[ICT]
Hillary proposes US-UK team to secure Pak nukes
7 Jan 2008, 0312 hrs IST,Chidanand Rajghatta,TNN
SMS NEWS to 58888 for latest updates
Former first lady Hillary Clinton threw a bombshell by proposing a joint US-British team to oversee the security of Pakistan’s nukes if she is elected president (TOI Photo)
WASHINGTON: Pakistan, now widely considered the world’s most dangerous country, has come squarely in the US cross-hairs with US presidential candidates vying with each other to pull the trigger even as the Bush administration itself is tightening the screws.
Saturday’s night Democratic debate in New Hampshire saw presidential aspirants jump on Bush administration’s Pakistan policy, with each one of them claiming better insight and expertise in handling the fast-deteriorating country.
But it was former first lady Hillary Clinton who threw a bombshell during the debate by proposing a joint US-British team to oversee the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal if she is elected president.
“So far as we know right now, the nuclear technology is considered secure, but there isn’t any guarantee, especially given the political turmoil going on inside Pakistan,” Clinton said during a Democratic debate here. If elected president, she said, “I would try to get Musharraf to share the security responsibility of the nuclear weapons with a delegation from the United States and, perhaps, Great Britain.”
The proposal is certain to stir up Islamabad, which is hypersensitive to any such suggestion of foreign control or oversight of its what it regards as its crown jewels - acquired mostly through theft and smuggling - central to its existence as a country.
[Imperialism] [Sovereignty] [Double standards]
China suspends food exports to N. Korea
[Exclusive]
China’s attempt to stabilize soaring domestic food prices could result in food shortages in the North
BEIJING – Measures to stabilize soaring domestic food prices in China have resulted in tighter controls on grain imports, which is likely to threaten food aid to North Korea.
China is one of the largest providers of food aid to the impoverished North, where severe flooding in August destroyed crops and further depleted food supplies.
In Dandung, Liaoning Province, near China’s border with North Korea, food exports to the impoverished country have been completely suspended. Up until now, an average of approximately 1,200 tons of food has crossed the border every day, but as of the beginning of the year, the Chinese government has not issued any new permissions for exports.
An official in Dandung said on January 4, “We can’t send trains carrying flour to North Korea. We have applied to the authorities for permission but we have no idea when we will get it.”
China’s Ministry of Commerce on January 1 issued emergency decrees, including an imposition of export duties of 5 to 25 percent on major grains such as rice, wheat, corn and beans. The ministry has also adopted an export quota system for powdered goods, including flour.
China began blocking grain exports in late December of last year in order to stabilize domestic food prices. On December 20, 2007, Beijing suddenly abolished tax incentives for grain exports.
Voting format settled; KMT boycotts looming
Publication Date:01/04/2008
By Amber Wu
With controversy over which voting system to employ in the upcoming elections finally at an end, the main opposition Kuomintang has announced it will boycott the two referendums--the Democratic Progressive Party's and its own--that are being held simultaneously with legislative polls on Jan. 12.
According to KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung, boycotting the upcoming referendums is the last resort for his party after it was forced to accept the Central Election Commission's decision to use the one-step voting format. "It was a painful decision," Wu told a press conference after a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting Jan. 1, where the boycott to kill its own referendum against government corruption was confirmed. "We had to take this course of action because we don't want the DPP to hijack the parliamentary elections with the referendum," he said.
The KMT's referendum calls for legislation that would establish an independent counsel to investigate corruption scandals involving President Chen Shui-bian, the first family and top government officials. The DPP's referendum asks for legislation to recover the assets of the KMT and transfer them to the people. It is estimated that the opposition party acquired real estate valued at billions of U.S. dollars during its 50-year rule of Taiwan. Most of the property had been owned by the Japanese, who turned it over to the ROC at the end of World War II in 1945.
High court's verdict keeps Ma in the 2008 presidential race
Publication Date:01/04/2008
By Amber Wu
Kuomintang presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou was cleared of corruption charges in connection with the misuse of his special-allowance fund by the Taiwan High Court Dec. 28.
The verdict is considered crucial for the upcoming presidential election, because if found guilty, Ma would have been unable to run as a candidate. Ma explained that he felt calm instead of elated, and that this was just the beginning of another wave of ugly tactics to crush him.
Ma was indicted Feb. 13, 2007 on charges of mishandling funds and embezzling a total of US$338,000 from his special allowance while mayor of Taipei City between 1998 and 2006
India plans Taiwan economic zone
Publication Date:01/04/2008
By Philip Courtenay
More than 100 Taiwanese companies were briefed on strategies for investing in India at a conference held in Taipei in September 2007 as organized by the Taiwan-India Cooperation Council. Inaugurated in 2006, the TICC aims for the promotion of economic, trade and academic exchanges between the two countries. The main speaker at the event was Gopal Srinivasan, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry's Tamil Nadu State Council.
Two weeks later, the Business Standard, India's leading business daily, reported that the Tamil Nadu government was considering the creation of a special economic zone near the city of Chennai, one that would be specifically tailored to the needs of Taiwanese businesses. [SEZ]
Inside Track: Waiting for China
Morton Abramowitz, The National Interest, 10/2/2007
China, China, China. It started with North Korea. It soon spread to Darfur. Now we need China for Burma. The Congo will probably be next. China has become the newest dues ex machina of international politics. In daytime it consorts with the forces of evil. At night, after pleadings from the world, China whispers in the ears of the malefactors: Behave yourself and you will benefit. Be more careful in publicly handling your people. Get those first worlders off your back (and ours too). Despite its poverty, China is increasingly the go-to power. It has relations with everyone (Taiwan excepted), trades with everyone, and is prepared to finance everyone from Tuvalu to Chad. Supposedly, only China can make things happen in a whole bunch of countries. And everyone from the Wall Street Journal to NGOs to Hollywood superstars are enthralled by China’s power and influence and expect it to fix long unresolved problems.
[China confrontation]
Tata confirmed as Jaguar front-runner
London – US carmaker Ford said on Thursday India’s Tata Motors was the front-runner to buy its European brands Jaguar and Land Rover.
”Ford is committed to focused negotiations at a more detailed level with Tata Motors concerning the potential sale of the combined Jaguar/Land Rover business,” said Lewis Booth, Ford executive vice-president with responsibility for Europe.
”There is still considerable work to do and while no final decision has been made, we will proceed with further substantive discussions with Tata Motors over the forthcoming weeks.”
Tata Motors, India’s top vehicle maker, said it was pleased with the progress in talks with Ford.
Tata Pulls Ford Units Into Its Orbit
By HEATHER TIMMONS
Published: January 4, 2008
LONDON — When Ratan Tata visited the home of the designer Ralph Lauren last autumn, the two auto enthusiasts spent much of their time in the garage, admiring Mr. Lauren’s extensive car collection, including the Batmobile-esque 1955 Jaguar XKD.
Now Mr. Tata is poised to take over Jaguar itself.
Tata Motors said Thursday that it was entering detailed talks with Ford Motor about the takeover of Jaguar and Land Rover, confirming what investors and analysts in India, Detroit and Britain have anticipated for months. Tata said it intends to reach an agreement on a deal over the next few weeks.
For Mr. Tata, who is 70, the takeover will cap 16 years transforming one of the world’s most diverse and unusual conglomerates, the Tata Group. Through 98 companies, Tata creates and sells everything from steel to tea to watches, making the company’s name ubiquitous in India. Under Mr. Tata, the name has started to reverberate around the globe as well.
A string of international deals in recent years has diversified Tata to the point where more than half its revenue this year will come from outside India
Murder on the Subcontinent
Eboo Patel
The heinous and high-profile assassination of Benazir Bhutto has overshadowed an equally dangerous cocktail of murder and election, religious identity and national fate, in Pakistan’s neighbor next door.
I am talking about the re-election of Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat in India, which The New York Times observed points to the return of Hindu nationalism as a force to be reckoned with in India.
A protégé of those forces, and now a leader in the movement, Modi played the part of the Roman Emperor Nero when waves of well-organized vigilantes shouting Hindu nationalist slogans murdered over a thousand Muslims in a highly organized fashion in his state in 2002.
Many were convoyed in from far away, wore the trademark saffron of the Hindutva movement, and carried documents indicating where the businesses and residences belonging to Muslims were located. They showed no mercy to women or children, in some cases gang-raping Muslim women before dousing them with kerosene and lighting them on fire.
Will POSCO’s Steel Project in India Take Off?
POSCO’s FINEX plant at its Pohang Steelworks. The next-generation technology will be implemented in the India Project. / Korea Times File
By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
At an executive board meeting in New Delhi October last year, POSCO CEO Lee Ku-taek confirmed that the company's India Project would break ground no later than April 1, 2008. But two months later in Orissa, crude bombs, arson and open fighting broke out again. It was just one of the many violent backlashes that have been dogging the steel giant's ambitious $12 billion project for the past two years.
Losing an Edge, Japanese Envy India’s Schools
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: January 2, 2008
MITAKA, Japan — Japan is suffering a crisis of confidence these days about its ability to compete with its emerging Asian rivals, China and India. But even in this fad-obsessed nation, one result was never expected: a growing craze for Indian education.
Despite an improved economy, many Japanese are feeling a sense of insecurity about the nation’s schools, which once turned out students who consistently ranked at the top of international tests. That is no longer true, which is why many people here are looking for lessons from India, the country the Japanese see as the world’s ascendant education superpower.
Bookstores are filled with titles like “Extreme Indian Arithmetic Drills” and “The Unknown Secrets of the Indians.” Newspapers carry reports of Indian children memorizing multiplication tables far beyond nine times nine, the standard for young elementary students in Japan.
Eased Rules on Tech Sales to China Questioned
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
Published: January 2, 2008
WASHINGTON — Six months ago, the Bush administration quietly eased some restrictions on the export of politically delicate technologies to China. The new approach was intended to help American companies increase sales of high-tech equipment to China despite tight curbs on sharing technology that might have military applications.
But today the administration is facing questions from weapons experts about whether some equipment — newly authorized for export to Chinese companies deemed trustworthy by Washington — could instead end up helping China modernize its military. Equally worrisome, the weapons experts say, is the possibility that China could share the technology with Iran or Syria.
[China confrontation] [Sanctions] [Dilemma]
Air China delays Pyongyang route for three months
BEIJING (Reuters) - Air China has postponed Wednesday's opening of a new route to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, until March, citing operational reasons, but denied the decision was linked to politics.
Labor law causes Taiwan firms to mull future in China
Publication Date?12/27/2007
By Liu King-pong
Many Taiwanese businesses in the Pearl River Delta area of China may soon shut up shop, in order to dodge surging labor costs brought on by China's new Employment Contract Law. The new law is widely believed to contain the world's most complete regulations governing labor-related issues, and is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2008.
"The situation will be miserable," predicted a Taiwanese businessman on condition of anonymity. "Big firms will take the lead in calling it quits, followed by their suppliers of raw materials and other supporting factories," he added Dec. 20.
An unofficial survey shows that one third of the Taiwanese firms in the area either have halted their operations or plan to do so in the near future. The area of the Pearl River Delta includes such regions as Dongguan, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai.
With the implementation of the new law on the horizon, businesses in the area are worried about the impact on their bottom lines. Taiwanese firms already have to bear various welfare costs, including pension allocation and medical insurance.
Industry insiders estimate the new law will boost manufacturers' labor costs by an extra 20 percent. In addition, the new law stipulates that employers must offer open-ended labor contracts to employees with over 10 years of service. Employers must also provide severance pay in case of mass layoffs.
[FDI} [Labour]
Tourism is one path to recognition
Publication Date?12/27/2007
By Marcus Lindy Sortijas
In the November/December 2007 issue of the National Geographic Traveler magazine, Taiwan is
called "Asia's best-kept secret." The country does indeed boast a wealth of riches for tourists, such as the spectacular Taroko Gorge and the National Palace Museum. But, while Taiwan has done a lot to attract businesspeople, more could be done to attract a wider cross section of visitors. By doing so, Taiwan could dramatically increase its international profile.
China's Invent-It-Here Syndrome
Christopher Thomas 12.31.07, 6:00 AM ET
Chris Thomas
BEIJING, CHINA - In the past 18 months, China has officially embarked on a multi-year, multi-faceted plan to transform "made in China" into "invented in China."
You can read about state economic plans on the Internet, and they sound dry and flat. In China, however, these plans are alive. They imbue every conversation with Chinese technology companies and with Chinese government ministers with urgency. They get written into contracts.
Here's how China's long-term economic plan came alive for me: This past summer, I moved to China for Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) to co-run our sales and marketing operations there. A few weeks into the job, I realized that doing business in China involved much more than winning sales in the world's only very large and very fast-growing PC market.
For instance, international standards are the glue of the PC and communications industry, ensuring that machines can communicate and work together, no matter where they're made. Big corporations devote significant time and people power to making sure their ideas are represented on the standards bodies that write these rules.
But in every introductory "ops" review I did in China, all our managers talked about how the "local standards" were a key to Intel's success in every market. By insisting (as any country can) that products sold in China must adhere to local as well as international standards, China makes sure that Chinese inventions get built into high-tech products sold here. That means there is a Chinese voice in which products succeed or fail in China. And products that succeed in China have a much higher chance of succeeding globally.
Local standards are core to China's innovation policy